Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)

This motion comes at a time of deep concern for the people of Ireland but particularly for my constituency of Dublin South Central. Our capital city is at breaking point. The housing crisis we are living in is dire. Every single clinic I have is jammed with people who are in desperate situations. They are coming to the clinic, the phone never stops ringing and the emails are full. When we reach this point, what else needs to happen for genuine action to follow? As a politician and a person who lives in my constituency, I cannot understand why things do not move. I am here seven months now. Things do not move. Houses and apartments do not seem to get built. There is delay after delay. My constituency has five regeneration projects. They have all been delayed for decades. What gets me is the fact we have these wonderful social homes, we have homes like the Oliver Bond flats that were beautifully built and yet they are falling apart because we do not maintain them. This the problem I have. It is bad from an environmental point of view as well. Letting everything disintegrate so that people are living in mouldy homes, drafty homes and homes not fit for habitation by a human is allowed in our social homes. Why do we not maintain them? Other countries have social homes and they maintain them. The Ballymun flats were built in the 1960s, for example. They were maintained and were built in a model based on a German example. When I go to Germany to visit my family, those homes are still fine. Why can we not have that here? We do not maintain them.

To reiterate what my colleague said, children growing up in the homes we are providing for them as a State is a disgrace, if they even have a home. Look at the number of children who are growing up in homelessness in this country. There is then hidden homelessness. Mothers contact me saying my child is doing the leaving cert and we are going from couch to couch. How are they able to do State exams? The State exams are over now but their search for homes and for somewhere to live is not over. We will then have the student accommodation problem in the summer when people will go to third level and yet we have no solutions there. It is like we are the only country in the world who has ever had a housing situation and we cannot learn from other countries. As you might hear this morning, I am a little bit at my wits' end because my inbox is just so full and I do not know what to do. I do not know whether the Government knows what to do. I do not have trust in the situation or trust that there is a proper plan in place. I would love to see a proper plan in place.

As my colleague said, we have put forward solutions. We have a housing expert here but no one is listening. I implore the Minister to please do something concrete and do it fast.

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