Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That system needs to be dismantled. It is very worrying that this new system is being compared to direct provision. This morning's presentation by Dr. Rory Hearne and Dr. Mary Murphy of Maynooth University on their report, Investing in the Right to a Home: Housing, HAPs and Hubs, was very important. Whenever we raise housing issues in this House we are told of certain initiatives brought forward by the Government as steps forward in the right direction. What the report points to is that Government policy is actually regressive. It is actually creating more problems in its design than it is solving. Dr. Hearne and Dr. Murphy look at issues around HAP and judge that it is not a valid mechanism to meet the right to housing. They look at issues around the family hubs etc. and point to successive Governments' heavy reliance on the private sector to provide social housing as a factor contributing to the problems now facing the State.

They also told us this morning that this problem will definitely get worse. The crisis will disimprove unless we address the issues. We need to have the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, in to this House as soon as possible. We need to examine this report, Investing in the Right to a Home: Housing, HAPs and Hubs, and have statements on it in the context of Government policy. The authors of this report state that Government policy is actually adding to the crisis rather than doing anything to solve it, and that is a very important debate for us to have here.