Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the issue of housing and again call for a debate in that regard. I live in a beautiful village called Castleconnell in Limerick, which had a population of 2,100 in 2016 and it is probably heading for around 2,500 now. Under the current plan for the village, between now and 2028, we are going to get five additional public houses – not pubs, but houses. That is what the population can look forward to. It is absolutely shocking, it shows a complete lack of planning, and it is an example of the reality on the ground people are facing, namely, lengthy waiting lists going back years and people having no prospect of getting a home. In addition, another issue is the fact the threshold for qualifying for public housing is so low. In Limerick, it is between €32,000 and €34,000. If you earn more than that, you do not even qualify to get a house.

I have met so many times in my village people paying €1,400 a month rent for substandard three-bedroom houses, giving them no prospect whatsoever to save for a house and no prospect of having any kind of security in terms of where they live. Each year, they are presented with another fait accompliin terms of a price hike, or oftentimes they are just told to leave with spurious excuses, and then the rent can be hiked up for the next tenants. It is an appalling prospect for young working families trying to make progress and hoping for a better future. It speaks of years, let us face it, of failure in terms of housing policy. The prospect right now for the 2,500 people of Castleconnell of just having five new social houses is an absolute disgrace. It needs urgent action. It speaks more widely of the failures of Government housing policy. That is why we continue to see matters get worse.