Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I believe we should have a serious debate in this House, whatever the budget will do next week, regarding the situation of those who are homeless and those who are on housing waiting lists. It is not going to be a quick fix message.Whatever one says about what happened five, ten or 12 years ago, the reality is that this budget and the forthcoming general election, regardless of whether it will be, as Fine Gael wish, on 20 November or as the Labour Party would like to see it in late February or early March, the Labour Party will be judged on the merits of what has been delivered. Let us face reality here. I have been in this House for a long time and I spent some years in this city as a student. I have never seen the homelessness problem in Dublin as serious as it is now. It is at a crisis point. Social housing not just in Dublin but throughout the country has been at a standstill. The number on the housing waiting list is so severe that no measures the Government might introduce in the forthcoming budget will come anywhere near solving it in the short term. Over the past three years, the problem has got more acute.

Throughout the country there are empty houses. NAMA, which in effect is a State agency, has scores of houses and scores of estates that are unfinished. Something serious needs to be done to address the housing crisis. There is no point in saying, "Fianna Fáil did this and we did that." The Government has had almost a five-year tenure. In many instances, both in this House and in the other one, our party has co-operated with and endorsed some of the policies the Government introduced. However, we cannot endorse or condone the serious situation out there with those on housing waiting lists, people living in cars, and people living in bed and breakfasts and hotels in this city. It is a really serious issue that will jump up and bite Fine Gael and the Labour Party in the forthcoming election. It is a very sad situation.

The Government side should reflect on a report on property by Mr. Justice Kenny in the mid-1970s and eke away at the notion of a society with haves and have-nots. The Kenny report was put on the shelf and ignored by the then Fine Gael-Labour Party coalition in the mid-1970s. My party in power ignored it and it may be about time for our society to seriously consider the progression of the whole area of property rights. I am not against that notion, but we must consider the exigencies of the common good and bring a balance to the debate about property. It may be necessary to revisit the Kenny report or even tweak the Constitution to ensure citizens of this country do not face decades without a home, as that would be a society that is going down the wrong road.