Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)

Tá áthas orm deis a bheith agam labhairt ar an mBille seo anocht.

Housing and the cost-of-living challenges remain to the forefront of people's concerns. It is, unfortunately, gone beyond an emergency. It is a crisis on steroids and one that is locking thousands of children into near-permanent states of homelessness every day of the week as an indictment of ineffective Government policy that stands head and shoulders above all else.

I accept that the Bill seeks to increase the agency's funding to €13.5 billion from €12 billion and that is welcome. We need to throw everything we have at this crisis. We need to make sure that we have every solution possible to alleviate this crisis but I feel compelled to say yet again that no amount in additional funding will properly stem the flood of homelessness until we get to grips with the demand side that is being artificially driven by the arrival of tens of thousands of people into this country who have absolutely no legal right to be here and whom we have no obligation to keep here. We need to look at that side of things or no solution is going to work for us.

If we look at the money spent on modular developments in the likes of Clonmel, County Tipperary at a cost of hundreds of thousands of euro each, practically a new small village was created in jig time. People, be they the homeless in my constituency of Offaly or anywhere else around the country, look at that and quite rightly feel a burning sense of anger and frustration at the direction and inaction of Government to stem the flow of illegal migrants into our country.

Last week we heard yet again that Government is allocating several billion euro over the next few years to International Protection Accommodation Service, IPAS, accommodation. Where will this all end? That is even before we mention the fact that IPAS residents, who are working in this State and provided with accommodation, still do not have to pay a single cent in contributions. Despite my first exposing of this issue in May 2024, no action seems to have been taken on that. They are paying nothing. They are contributing nothing. Free accommodation and working does not seem right. It is discrimination against our own citizens.

The Government can clap itself on the back for allocating an additional €1.5 billion to the agency but until we finally get to grips with the demand issue, we are never going to solve the supply issue. In fact, it can only get worse. There needs to be a robust look at our measures and we need to see more deportations of illegal people who should not be in this country.

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