Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)

Over-regulated, underdelivered and a catastrophic social disaster that is resulting in the untold misery of thousands of people who are trapped in a bleak housing nightmare. We are witnessing an epidemic of incompetence when it comes to housing. We are witnessing the third Government in a row that has shown no real, dynamic leadership on this issue. We have the third Government in a row that will not speak in an honest way about the impact that massive levels of unsustainable inward migration are having in terms of our housing and accommodation capacity.

This is not just moral and political cowardice; it is betrayal. It is the kind of refusal to describe the known dimensions and contributors to a crisis that is nothing short of infuriating. When demand exceeds supply, it is very logical and very straightforward that we need to have a serious look at inward migration.

We have a generation of children whose birthdays are spent in crowded hotel rooms; a generation who cannot plan their futures and who live on the edge of homelessness. We have tens of thousands of couples who are locked out of the housing market.

In my constituency of Offaly, we are not seeing affordable housing schemes. I have dealt with many people in my constituency offices in Tullamore and Birr. Their income happens to be too high to go on the social housing list but too low to get a mortgage. Those people are caught and they need help. We need affordable housing schemes quickly.

This whole crisis has gone beyond an emergency. It is a housing collapse. What good will our words do when no one seems to be prepared to treat this with the gravity it deserves, take a logical approach and deal with the unsustainable, crazy level of inward migration.

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