Fewer than 15 TDs were in the Dáil at any one time for a debate calling for housing to be declared an emergency, with just two present on the Government side including Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien.
The debate on a Sinn Féin motion on Tuesday evening called for the Government to declare a housing emergency and was taking place in advance of and to publicise the Raise the Roof protest on Saturday in Dublin city centre.
The protest is organised by an umbrella coalition of political parties, non-governmental organisations and trade unions.
Mr O’Brien insisted there is cause for “hope and optimism” in the delivery of housing targets as he faced trenchant opposition criticism of Government “failure” on housing and calls for change. He said the Government’s Housing for All programme is beginning to deliver and claimed the Sinn Féin motion was “just about semantics”.
But Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin, who introduced the motion, said the level of public anger at the failure of Government housing policies is “rising and rising every single day”.
On the Government side Mr O’Brien and Fianna Fáil Dublin North-West TD Paul McAuliffe were the only Government deputies in the chamber at any one time until Minister of State Malcolm Noonan attended to take Mr O’Brien’s place. No Fine Gael TDs were present.
Among the other parties just one or two attended while about eight Sinn Féin TDs were present for the debate.
Mr Ó Broin cited the latest Daft report highlighting the record 14.1 per cent increase in rents in the third quarter of this year as he said increasing numbers of children were sleeping in cars and tents, while schools were suffering because teachers could not afford rents in cities, students were giving up college courses because they could not afford rents being charged, and many graduates were planning to emigrate despite opportunities for good jobs in the State.
The Dublin Mid-West TD said that by declaring an emergency, emergency action would follow including a ban on rent increases for three years, and a number of measures including significant rent tax relief for tenants.
He accused the Minister of failing to give local authorities adequate instructions and guidance on purchasing tenant-in-situ homes that were about to be sold out under them.
But the Minister claimed the motion “is all just about semantics” and said Sinn Féin had not provided a detailed plan for housing.
Mr O’Brien insisted the Government programme is the “single biggest intervention that any government has made in housing. It invests over €4 billion a year, an unprecedented amount to build 300,000 new homes between now and 2030.”
He cited a number of Government initiatives and claimed Sinn Féin’s proposals were “way behind” the Government’s.
“Your call for €2.8 billion in capital funding is much less than the €4 billion that Government are putting into it.
“You will still say that you will build more homes for less money. It doesn’t add up,” he told Mr Ó Broin.
He said that in the party’s pre-budget submission “you didn’t even specify how much money you would invest in housing”.
The Minister repeated his accusation that Sinn Féin was against home ownership and opposed schemes such as Help to Buy and “you continue to oppose housing developments right throughout this country”.
But Social Democrats housing spokesman Cian O’Callaghan said it was an “objective fact” that in his Dublin Bay North constituency the vast bulk of political objections to housing planning developments were from Fianna Fáil.
Richard Boyd Barrett of People Before Profit cited one family who had been in their home since the 1950s and believed they were secure, who would now be homeless for Christmas.
“The Government’s policy is a shambles. They are completely hostage to the interests of big landlords, property investors and speculators,” he said.
A vote on the motion is due to take place in the Dáil on Wednesday night.
