Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)

What those crowds outside the gates during the Minister of State's ten-minute speech heard was waffle and spin. They live the reality of this Government's failed housing policies. Their families, friends and co-workers live this reality. They know as well as we in opposition do that the Government at this stage might as well be a meme for fiddling while Rome burns when it comes to housing, because that is what it is doing. Instead of putting on its big boy socks and admitting its policies are wrong, it comes along with hare-brained notions to strip away protections from renters, propose more tax reliefs for vulture funds, further delay social and affordable homes and throw students to the wolves, all in one fell swoop.

In my constituency of Longford-Westmeath, we do not need statistics because we live this housing crisis every day. Families are sleeping in overcrowded box rooms and sofa surfing and young adults are forced to leave for far-off countries because there is no realistic pathway for them under this Government to ever own a house or rent an affordable one. Entire generations are being exiled from communities because of sky high rents.

While homes lie empty, what is the Government doing? It is dithering. Derelict homes rot while people struggle to put a roof over their heads. This is not a crisis but an absolute disgrace. Older residents are contacting me who have worked all their lives and are now facing eviction into homelessness because they rent privately with no security and no plan for their later years. Students are commuting hours every day because there are no affordable houses, and this is before the Government's measure comes in. Public sector workers - our teachers and guards - are priced out of their own communities. Does the Minister of State not see this as the reality of the situation? We do not need any more gobbledygook press releases. We need emergency actions. We need real rent controls, taxes on vacancies and public houses built at scale on public land.

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