Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)

For years, we have known about the state of the housing crisis and calling it an emergency. The President, Uachtarán na hÉireann, called it disastrous when he came to my constituency in north Kildare. Record level house prices, rising rents and missing its own building targets year after year is the Government's record on housing as well as misleading people in the last general election with made up figures.

In my constituency of north Kildare, a second-hand three-bedroom house is currently €500,000. How is any nurse, teacher, bus driver or retail worker expected to afford that? The Government is locking ordinary working people out of housing and it has been going that way for too long. Those who are locked out of housing face the desperate conditions of the homeless services. I know of many who will not go to the homeless services because the conditions are so horrendous in some of those shelters. There is no dignity there.

I had a retired teacher in my office a couple of weeks ago who was crying because she had just become homeless. She is sleeping in her car because she refuses to go to the hostels offered by Kildare County Council. There is no dignity for people and the Government does not seem to care about them. She feels she has no other option than to sleep in her car as it is a better alternative to what the State provides to its most vulnerable.

This is not the only reason people are sleeping in their cars. A few months ago, people were sleeping in their cars to try to see a house, a new build in Leixlip. This has only gotten worse under the Government's watch. As far it is concerned, rents and house prices are not high enough. We need real action immediately to protect renters by freezing and cutting rent in the reintroduction of no-fault evictions. We need a united front like the one we had outside Leinster House today to stand up to this Government, fight back, demand the dignity our citizens deserve and demand change immediately.

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