Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The hashtag #streetsofshameis doing the rounds on Twitter. Last night, I thought about it before I came here. It is very easy to blame the Government and the current Minister for everything. The Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Simon Coveney, is trying to push the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016 through the House. There are aspects to it we like and aspects we do not like, and I find the Minister more than facilitating. Last night, when I was looking at the hashtag #streetsofshametweets, it struck me that homelessness did not arise yesterday or the day before. It was not a function of the previous Governments, although we could argue until the cows come home that it could have done some things better. Homelessness is the responsibility of everybody in the country.

Recently, I learned of developers who have held back property in order to cash in on the rising prices in the improving economy.I have learned of one development where houses were held back for three months in order to increase the price by €100,000 and bring the price of the houses up to close to €1 million. It looks like the cub of the Celtic tiger has grown and is about to be unleashed on us again.

As Senators know, I give the Government a lash every time I get a chance. However, in this particular case it is grossly unfair on the Minister, Deputy Coveney. He is trying to do something and it behoves us all, regardless of our political affiliation or our beliefs in profiteering, etc., to get behind him. If he is making a mistake, that will emerge in time to come. However, I do not believe he is; I think he is trying his damnedest. I, for one, am behind him and want to support him in any way I can. I found him to be facilitating yesterday on the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill. If all Ministers were like him, we might get an awful lot more done in this Dáil and Seanad. It may be time for us to lash back a bit at the populism. Maybe it is time we told the populists, "This is nonsense. How many of you would be willing to put an extra five cent in the euro on your tax in order to cover some of the homelessness?".