Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree with previous speakers. We have a housing crisis and I believe that this Government has been in denial for the last year or more. We have come to many a meeting in the House with the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Coveney, or the Minister of State, Deputy English, and we have been told that everything is under control and that there will be schemes in place, such as the HAP scheme, and the new rent pressure zones. It has been a disaster. We now have a worse housing crisis than ever before. There are people in homelessness. This Government still fails to act on it. The Minister needs to come to the House and be accountable. We have been told that there is so much money available over the last year and a half for housing, yet there are still people in homelessness who are crying out for houses. There is a lack of supply.

This issue is of crucial importance and we are in a crisis, including in all Departments. There is a crisis in our mental health funding and in people waiting for hospital appointments. A year ago, I brought up the Tír na nÓg respite service that we were to have in Carlow that had been closed 16 months ago. We were told in January that we would get that service., yet two weeks ago we and families in Carlow and Kilkenny in need of the service were told by the HSE that it had fallen through. That is a disaster. Whether it was through its own information or a lack of information, the HSE told us that Respond, the housing body, does not cater for or will not be able to let the Tír na nÓg respite service into a house that was to be ready in six weeks' time. This is unacceptable. It is a disaster. Similarly, we were told five years ago that a day care centre, Holy Angels, would get a new centre but now we are told it will not get it. I ask that the Government stand up and be accountable. It is absolutely not fulfilling any of its promises.It is an absolute disaster.