Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

If the Fianna Fáil Members cannot bring themselves to support our motion, they should at least have the decency to abstain so that the remaining Senators can vote on it.

It is ironic that Senator McDowell called our legislation mistaken but well-intentioned. That is from a man who was the leader of a former party whose members were the architects of our boom and bust economy. Some of its former representatives in these Houses are the champions of the construction industry. They will definitely look to a more developer-led, privatised situation because what we have here is a fundamental difference of ideology.

I welcome the Minister of State's measured remarks, which I listened to carefully, but there is a fundamental difference of opinion in terms of the ideology because he said he wants to increase the amount of private housing in the entire housing sector. We would push more towards greatly increased delivery of social housing-----