Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will begin by supporting every word that Senator Black has said on the apartheid State of Israel. I respectfully remind colleagues of the Martin Luther King quote that "our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter". This Government has been silent on apartheid Israel for far too long.

The topic I raise today is the Government's housing policy. I will call for a debate. I am sure we will get a lot of interest around a debate on the affordable housing Bill in particular. I spoke about the Bill to colleagues, neighbours and friends at home this weekend. People are genuinely in shock that under its shared equity scheme the Government deems a house in Limerick that costs €350,000 to be affordable. I remind colleagues that the average industrial wage in the State is just €40,000 per annum.

In my village and across Limerick city and county I see thousands of people trapped in rent. There are no means of supporting them or getting them out of that situation. They pay so much in rent each month, €1,200 or €1,400 for example, that there is no money left to save for a deposit for a mortgage. It is unfortunate but true that there is nothing of substance in the affordable housing Bill to tackle this issue. Indeed, for the good parts of the Bill, the amounts of money are so small that it produces 500 affordable homes in a year. This is less than 20 per county.

Let us be clear that there is something fundamentally wrong with the ambition and the ideology at the heart of this. It was interesting to see a quote from one of the vulture funds that cited the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrat Government and its shift to viewing housing as an asset as opposed to a home. This is where the seeds of this ruin lie. This is what has driven our economy off a cliff. This is what has driven a whole generation out of the opportunity and the chance to own their own homes. I call for an urgent debate on this matter.