Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will raise two issues. This morning I was absolutely shocked and horrified after learning that more than 500 people in Dublin have been warned by gardaí that their lives are in danger. Unfortunately, many of these people are involved in the drugs trade and many of the threats are gang related. There seems to be no end in sight or plan put in place by the Government to counter the scourge of drug-related crime in our city. The people living in the inner city and the communities of the inner city should not have to live in fear on a daily basis. We learn that of the 500, 11 are in imminent danger and Garda resources are now deployed on a preservation-of-life beat. What is most worrying is that the assistant commissioner, Pat Leahy, intimated that the Hutch and Kinahan feud was unlikely to end any time soon. I call on the Minister to come to the House to address the matter and outline how the Government plans to support inner-city communities who are affected by this scourge.

The second issue I will raise is housing and homelessness statistics. It is a subject I have raised on many occasions in the House and I reiterate calls for the Minister of Housing, Planning and Local Government to come to the House and confirm whether he instructed local authorities to amend or reclassify homeless figures in any way. Why was there a deliberate attempt by the Minister to reduce the figures of the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government by misrepresenting people's situations? We all know from our clinics there has not been a massive increase or recovery in the social housing lists across the country. Does the Minister find the monthly publishing of these lists and accountability tiring and troublesome? We need to know exactly what is going on here.

In the meantime, we know rents are increasing, house prices are spiralling and the State is contemplating the acquisition of private lands when there are huge tranches of public lands lying idle where houses could be built. Another facet is new-build houses. If any Member has been on daft.ieor myhome.ie, they will see that a lot of the new-build estates are shown as price on application, POA. It is really worrying because it seems that developers are making up prices on a weekly basis. Prices start off at €500,000 for a two-bedroom apartment and we are now seeing two-bedroom apartments in parts of Dublin going for up to €800,000. There needs to be some measures in place so developers do not just throw out prices. There needs to be some transparency for consumers because it is not fair. We need to see fairness in the market. As we do not have supply, people are able to make hay but ultimately people need to be able to afford houses at a fair and transparent price.