Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senators Boyhan and Mark Daly raised the issue of housing. I would be happy to invite the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, and the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English, to the House to address housing and homelessness. I commend the Minister. There is an obligation on Members, when they come into the House, to put forward policies. For once, I agree with Deputy Micheál Martin. The motion tabled in the Dáil yesterday was not going to solve the housing crisis. None of us has a monopoly on empathy or concern. All of us, every day, in our personal lives and political lives, meet and deal with people who are suffering as a result of a lack of housing, whether due to affordability or a lack of social housing, or whether they are elderly people who want to downsize and cannot do so. Members of the House have an obligation, when speaking about housing or any matter, to come here with an alternative policy rather than a cheap soundbite. Let us hear the policies.