Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise in advance that I will have to leave before the end because I want to go out to support the keepers of native Irish bees who are outside. I hope everybody will support Senator Martin's Bill today.

I welcome the relaunch of the Raise the Roof campaign. We have been in lockdown for two years now but that does not mean that the housing crisis has gone away. In fact, it has only got worse. As Fr. Peter McVerry has said, the crisis is worse today than it has been at any time in the past 40 years. We seem to have a Minister who is too arrogant to accept that circumstances have moved on and that his Housing for All plan has been overtaken. We have also had to listen people saying that it takes time to build housing but people are now frustrated and fed up because we have been hearing that for the last ten years from Fine Gael in government. What we need to address the housing crisis is a doubling of capital investment in public housing. We need to increase the delivery of social and affordable homes. We need to cut rents and ban increases. We have to prevent homelessness by putting packages in place with local authorities to allow them to work with families when they get their notices to quit while also rolling out Housing First nationwide. We also need to enshrine the right to housing in the Constitution. The level of anger and despair in communities is palpable. Workers cannot afford to live in the cities and towns and are emigrating in their droves. I am sure many of the elected representatives here will have experienced parliamentary assistants and secretarial assistants leaving. People are leaving because they are getting notices to quit and have no choice because they cannot live in our capital city.

I encourage everyone to attend the Raise the Roof public meetings that are happening around the country. There was one last night. There will be meetings in the Tower Hotel, Waterford, on 7 June, in the Limerick Strand Hotel on 13 June, in the Mansion House on 21 June, in SIPTU's offices in Galway on 28 June and in the Glenroyal Hotel, Maynooth, on 4 July. All of those meetings are taking place at 7 p.m. I encourage Senators to attend to hear from people at the coalface what we need to do to address the housing crisis.

My final point is not relevant to the housing issue but it is always a good day to say that trans rights are human rights.