Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)

I will give the Minister another figure if he wants to burn money instead of building houses. It costs on average €87,500 to keep a family in a hotel in emergency accommodation. That is what we are spending, and it is only €31,000 to repair a boarded-up house. For years I thought the Government was over-smart, saying the market would solve the problem. I am now fully convinced that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael do not want to solve the housing problem because they are more interested in keeping the banks profitable, the rents and mortgages high and keeping everything high. What about ordinary people? What about ordinary people who cannot pay their rents or get mortgages?

I will give the Minister one example. A lady contacted my office on Monday. I have a clinic on Mondays and it is not possible to get in the door of my office for four hours. Afterwards, I have to do a phone clinic for people who cannot come in.

She is a 68-year-old lady who is facing homelessness in February. She is going to be homeless when she is 69 years old. Who is responsible? It is the Government's policy. We are seeing more older people become homeless than we ever did before. She is worried that when she is in her seventies she will be homeless.

Another lady contacted me. She has been living in emergency accommodation since 8 January with a small baby. The Government is putting hundreds of millions into tax breaks and now people with young children and pensioners are effected. I had a couple in with me the other day. They have four children and cannot get a mortgage because every time they go to buy a house, the prices are being driven up. They do not qualify for social housing-----

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