Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)

I thank the Minister for finally coming before the Dáil to speak to this housing plan, a plan which is a blueprint for failure. It has next to nothing to say about rural depopulation because we know it will take real action to confront that problem. Communities across the State are being slowly hollowed out - in some cases quite quickly - because the Government has failed to deliver the homes, the services and the opportunities that young people need to stay rooted in their communities and their own places. Once young people are forced out, everything else begins to erode such as the school, the post office, community organisations and the GAA club. The failure of the Government is compounded by barriers to rural planning and the absence of basic enabling infrastructure. Wastewater capacity, water connections and transport links are missing, and without them housing simply cannot be delivered. This is the direct consequence of a Government that has turned its back on rural Ireland. This housing plan offers more gloss, more spin, nothing new and certainly no delivery.

Fágann plean tithíochta an Rialtais an Ghaeltacht ar lár. Is é seo an ceathrú plean ó 2013 agus fós tá teaghlaigh óga á bpraghsáil amach as a bpobail féin. In áit ghníomh, faighimid gealltanais ar staidéir nua agus moltaí nach bhfeicfimid go dtí 2026, más ea. Tá an ghéarchéim ann anois. Tá sé ann le blianta. Tá teaghlaigh ag imeacht anois. Caithfear cumhacht agus acmhainní a thabhairt d'Údarás na Gaeltachta chun tithe agus bonneagair riachtanach a chur ar fáil. Caithfidh an Rialtas toil pholaitiúil a léiriú agus a thaispeáint do na húdaráis áitiúla. Gan tithíocht, níl aon phobal agus gan pobal, ní mhairfidh an Ghaelainn.

The housing crisis in Waterford is now undermining the very future of towns, villages and the city. Rents are rising out of control, up 7.6% this year, which is above average. While affordable and social homes remain stuck in process and are delayed, families are left waiting. Nowhere is that failure more stark than in the village of Ardmore, where a community is facing an existential demographic crisis because an affordable housing scheme that is being spoken about has been pushed from pillar to post, from local authority to Department and from Department back to local authority, for years. It has been left in limbo. Young people have been driven out and are being driven out still. The demographic core is thinning and the village risks losing the very people who sustain its services, its school and its very identity. That same pressure stretches from Dunmore East to Lismore, and from Bunmahon to Waterford city. This neglect and indifference must end. Like my colleagues, I appeal to the Minister to change course. We hold very little hope because the plan he has published is an abomination and an admission of failure.

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