Rory Hearne
Dublin North-West · Social Democrats · Ireland
“I thank you, a Leas Cheann-Comhairle, for your work and support during the year and thank all the staff here. I wish my colleagues in government the best of luck over the summer and respite from our robust engagement. We look forward to going at it again in the autumn.”
“The Dublin public will be very upset when they realise their fire fighters and emergency response service are at risk of being split and downgraded.”
“I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion. It is important to have a discussion about the context of education costs and back-to-school costs. Of course, the context is massive inequality in this country.”
“However, what it is actually doing is throwing families into even more stress on top of not being able to pay the basic bills. In my constituency to respond and support families struggling with back-to-school costs, the Finglas voluntary food and family support service, Feed Our Homeless, last year organised help for families with a pop-u…”
“A second tier of child benefit would lift 55,000 children out of poverty but the Government will not do it. It costs the same as what it has given in tax breaks to developers, investor funds and large fast-food giants. Childhoods pass quickly. No child should have their future limited by poverty.”
“The Government is ramming through planning legislation this week that will exempt sheds out the back without proper scrutiny. It is satisfied with handing our young people to vulture landlords. The Government is now offering a future of renting a shed out the back with no rights whatsoever.”
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“The Minister is repeating the same tropes that the Taoiseach repeats that we have had no alternatives. If the Minister looked at our election manifesto, he is correct that we talked about using private investment but it is the particular type of private investment. The Taoiseach is also spinning this by saying we are against private investment. We are not against private investment in housing. What we are against is shaping the entire housing system around the profitability demands of institutional funds and institutional investors. There are multiple different forms of private investment. One of the solutions we have put forward is using a new State saving scheme, as they do in France, to leverage the €160 billion that is available in banks in this country. We cannot just rely on commercial banks to channel that money into housing.”
“The Government's own croí conaithe scheme, The Irish Times showed today, has only delivered 20% of the apartments it was supposed to deliver. In that, developers could get €120,000 per apartment. Where is it proposed that the subsidies would end?”
“I do not see the radical reset in the Minister's response that the Housing Commission called for and the Minister himself agreed was needed. We know the definition of insanity is continuing the same policy or same approach and expecting a different outcome. On the question about the planning and apartments, there is over-reliance on institutional investors. Institutional investors invest on the basis of their profit viability projections. If they think that there is not sufficient profit there, they do not invest. Is the policy plan essentially to increase their profits so that it becomes, in their estimation, viable? We know what that means. It means rents rising or other ways. Is the Minister talking about, as we have heard, tax breaks? Is he talking about more subsidies?”
“In terms of the planning applications, we have seen a significant fall in applications. The figures are down over 21% annually, and apartments even further. What are the Minister's plans to address this? In particular, does it not show that the Minister's housing policy and Housing for All as a policy has not worked, that new measures are required and, in fact, that the reliance on institutional investors to deliver homes and apartments is an unreliable approach?”
“It comes back to the argument that if they do not, it will show once more that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael do not actually care about renters and those being made homeless.”
“They appear to be captured by the big landlords. I believe the issue is that they do not care. They do not actually care about those tenants being evicted and they do not care about the individuals and families being made homeless. As I said earlier, the evidence is there that the tenant in situ scheme is working, so why is the Government introducing any level of uncertainty into it? The Government should tell the local authorities to use the tenant in situ scheme as they need it for any household, individual or family that faces eviction. There is no lack of money. We have billions of euro in budget surplus. Here is a policy that has been proven to work. It can actually work. I argue and plead with the Minister to reverse the Government's new limitations on the tenant in situ scheme, keep it working and keep the funding going into it.”
“In my constituency, in Ballymun and Finglas, 243 people went for one social home. If no homes are becoming available, where will tenants who are facing eviction from the private rental system and who are eligible for social housing go? This is really not acceptable, and the Government has to accept that it needs to properly implement the tenant in situ scheme. Where should these people go? I also want to ask about the cost rental tenant in situ scheme, whereby those who do not qualify for social housing but qualify for cost rental could be prevented from eviction. Will the Government continue funding for that? Again, there are small numbers involved but there should be more. Will the Government continue to support the cost rental tenant in situ scheme? What is it with the Minister and the Government's disdain for renters?”
“The tenant in situ scheme offered some level of hope. It prevented a small though not insignificant number of families and individuals from becoming homeless. Where are the HAP tenants to go if they are evicted? The changes to the tenant in situ scheme immediately plunge 60,000 households into immediate risk of homelessness, but then the Government clearly does not care. Dublin city councillors have written to council management asking them what they will do to support and implement the tenant in situ scheme, as continued. The Department of housing and the Government have introduced huge uncertainty to the scheme. We know there are tenant in situ applications that are not being processed. There are people who will be made homeless as a result of the changes to the scheme.”
“Homelessness is a trauma but it is completely preventable, and the Government clearly does not see this as the emergency it is. Many areas do not even have emergency accommodation. There are waiting lists for emergency accommodation. The Simon Communities have recently said that the Government still lacks a comprehensive plan to tackle homelessness and that one of the key areas is the tenant in situ scheme. There are over 55,000 households in receipt of the housing assistance payment. The Simon Communities' quarterly Locked Out of the Market report from December showed that just 46 properties were available to rent within the discretionary rate of the HAP scheme. Where are those 55,000 households to go to find somewhere to rent when they are issued a notice to quit? Where will they find somewhere to rent?”
“The Government seems more concerned about the cuckoo fund landlords lobbying to prevent tenant protections than the actual tenants being evicted. Since the lifting of the eviction ban in March 2023, homelessness has increased by 28%. The Government clearly does not see record levels of homelessness as an emergency. A total of 3,472 children were homeless in March 2023; today there are 4,603 children homeless, a 33% increase. Thousands of children have gone through the trauma of losing their home since the lifting of the eviction ban. There is the uprooting from their neighbourhoods and from their friends, bringing a few belongings with them into a strange place, into emergency accommodation. Each child will be damaged by every day they spend in emergency accommodation.”
“Some 30,000 households have been evicted since the eviction ban was lifted in March 2023, with 14,000 in the last three quarters of 2023 and 16,000 last year. That is an emergency. They are famine-scale evictions. Some 85% of them were no-fault evictions; the tenant did nothing wrong. In 61% of cases the landlord stated they were selling up. That shows that in most of these cases the eviction could be prevented through a ban on no-fault evictions, which the Minister and his Government consistently refuse to implement while they claim to care about the devastation being caused by the housing crisis. The Taoiseach said again today that he is as concerned as anybody in this House about the housing crisis. I beg to differ.”
“I said shame on Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael then; I say shame on them again today. It is a bloody disgrace that the eviction ban was lifted and it is a bloody disgrace that the Government is now bringing a wrecking ball to the tenant in situ scheme. When the eviction ban was lifted, the Government said the tenant in situ scheme was the protection, the safety net, that was in place to prevent renters from being made homeless. Yet now the Government is rolling back and removing that promise and commitment to renters. This is an emergency, a social disaster, yet this Government continues to fail to treat the housing crisis like the emergency it is. The wrecking ball it is bringing to tenant in situ is one more example.”
“When the eviction ban, a measure that was preventing homelessness as well, was lifted in March 2023, I described it as one of the cruellest decisions ever taken by an Irish Government, and it was. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael made the decision knowing that it would result in people being made homeless. Now it is making another decision that it knows will make people homeless. Where is the evidence that backs up restricting the tenant in situ scheme? The Government has not provided it, just as it did not provide evidence to back up the lifting of the eviction ban. It is another Government policy based not on evidence but on a lack of care, a lack of interest in dealing with homelessness and a lack of concern for some of our most vulnerable people in this society. I cannot get my head around it.”
“I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this timely and vital motion. It is deeply disappointing to see that the Government is not supporting it and has put forward an amendment that will take away from the point of the motion. I am deeply annoyed and frustrated by this Government's failure to act on homelessness and to treat it like an emergency. A home is one of the most fundamental needs that people have, yet clearly the Government does not understand the true value of a home. If it did, it would not be bringing a wrecking ball to the tenant in situ scheme, which was working to prevent people losing their home, or sabotaging one of the few policies that do something to alleviate homelessness. Shamefully, the Government is pulling the small rug that was available to tenants out from under their feet.”
“As per the recommendation from Foras na Gaeilge, the údarás should be given the statutory power and resources necessary to enable it to purchase land, obtain planning permission, provide services and develop affordable housing for Irish speakers in the Gaeltacht areas. Ba chóir an chumacht reachtúil agus na hacmhainní riachtanacha, idir reatha agus caipitil, a thabhairt d'Údarás na Gaeltachta le rannóg tithíochta a bhunú le cur ar a chumas talamh a cheannach agus seirbhísí riachtanacha a chur ar fáil le gur féidir tithíocht a fhorbairt do chainteoirí Gaeilge sna ceantair Ghaeltachta.”
“Is géarchéim chórasach náisiúnta í an ghéarchéim tithíochta atá ag réabadh na tíre le tamall de bhlianta anuas ach tá cástacht sa bhreis ar an scéal sa Ghaeltacht toisc go bhfuil todhchaí ár dtéanga á cur i mbaol ag an gcóras reatha, córas atá ag cur muintir na Gaeltachta as a gceantair dhúchais mar gheall nach féidir teach a cheannach, a thógáil nó a fháil ar cíos go fadtéarmach. Airbnb is a massive problem in these communities with just a handful of places to rent on Daft while there are hundreds on Airbnb. The Government should move without delay to clamp down on these. The Government must also urgently support the delivery of affordable homes in our Gaeltachtaí using our budget surplus to fund and resource Údarás na Gaeltachta.”
“Idir diúltú cead pleanála do dhaoine áitiúla, ganntanas títhe ar fáil ar cíos go fadtéarmach cé go bhuil iliomad acu ar Airbnb agus easpa tithe inacmhainne ar díol, tá sé ag éirí níos deacra i gcónaí do mhuintir na Gaeltachta cur fúthu sa Ghaeltacht. The housing crisis in the Gaeltachtaí has particular significance to the language given their importance in the continuation of the language and its ability to thrive and survive. I have spoken to young people from our Gaeltachtaí who cannot buy or build a home in their community. Those young people are the future of our language. They should be supported to get a home in the Gaeltacht so that the language can survive. The future of the language depends on their future and their ability to get a home in the Gaeltacht.”
“We in the Social Democrats and people throughout this country, including Irish and Gaeltacht groups, are deeply concerned about the state of the Irish language. We are calling for urgent action from the Government to ensure that the language survives and thrives through action in the education system, through support for the Irish language sector in our community by giving the additional €20 million requested by 130 Irish language, Gaeltacht and other groups as per an plean fáis through Foras na Gaeilge and through urgently addressing the housing crisis in our Gaeltachtaí. Labhróidh mé le himní mhór. I will speak with deep concern about the housing crisis in our Gaeltachtaí. Tá an staid tithíochta reatha sa Ghaeltacht tagtha go pointe éigeandála le cúpla bliain anuas.”
“Tá grúpaí Gaeilge agus Gaeltachta fud fad na tíre buartha faoi staid reatha na teanga. Is cinnte go bhfuil rudaí maithe ar nós Kneecap, "An Cailín Ciúin" agus eile ann ach níl ag éirí go maith leis an nGaeilge sa chóras oideachais. Tá crúachas ann i maoiniú na Gaeilge sa phobal agus tá fadhbanna an-mhór le tithíocht sa Ghaeltacht. There is a welcome flourishing of the Irish language in communities and the arts among people young and old. Feicim é i mo pháistí féin. The language is being returned to as an expression of positive inclusive identity, of community and of connection and meaning in a world where we are increasingly alienated from each other in a monotonous culture that wants to commodify everything.”
“When talking about waste of taxpayers' money, the social housing leasing schemes are one of the biggest wastes of public money there is. Why is the Government continuing to deliver social housing through leasing despite its commitment to end the use of social housing leasing? One in five of all new social houses delivered this year and next year will be acquired through leasing, where the State gets no asset at the end. We need to reconsider that.”
“I was out in Finglas West visiting a local service delivered by Barnardos. It is a family resource centre that is doing incredible work in very challenging situations. It is supporting parents and children. These NGOs are doing vital work. We must be very careful about criticising that sector. It is important to value it. We need to defend NGOs. They are being squeezed by the State as regards what they are expected to deliver. I will talk about the issue of social housing. We are continuing to deliver social housing through leasing. We pay private sector bodies, often investor funds, a set income for 25 years approximating to or just below the market rent and, at the end of those 25 years, we get nothing.”
“There are public servants and civil servants throughout this country who are struggling in their own ways as they work really hard to deliver public services. They are being held back by our State and how it fails to take that social democratic approach to valuing public services and to see their key role. With all due respect to the proposers of the motion, I have heard them criticise local authorities. We have also heard from the Government that local authorities are not delivering enough. Why are they not delivering? They are not delivering because they have been underfunded for 30 years. They have been cut back and their resources have been decimated. I would also like the proposers of the motion to consider their language around NGOs. NGOs deliver vital services across the country. I refer to the likes of Women's Aid and Barnardos.”
“They are not sure whether they believe in the State or the private sector for delivery. You can look through a litany of examples over the past 30 years. I have written books on it. I refer to public private partnerships, leasing schemes and outsourcing. There is a confused approach as to whether to deliver public services through the private sector or the public sector. These governments have fallen down the middle. In some areas, we do things very well. To back up my colleague, it is really important we see the areas in which the public sector is delivering. I refer to the area of education in our schools in particular. Our teachers work so hard. We also see our nurses and doctors.”
“It has now been 20 years since the metro was promised. What happened to it? It was ditched by Fine Gael in 2010 and by Leo Varadkar of Fine Gael in 2011 because it was not considered economically viable at the time the austerity cuts were implemented. It was picked up again and has stuttered along. We need to see genuine commitment to delivering key public infrastructure. We also need to understand why there has not been this commitment. It is because we have never had a social democratic government, that is, one that values and believes in public services and believes in the State's responsibility to deliver in the key areas of infrastructure, health, housing and transport. What we have had is successive governments led by Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, parties that have this mixed and confused ideology.”
“Gabhaim buíochas leis an group for bringing forward this motion. It is very important we focus on this issue. Similarly to my colleague, I also have differences with some of this motion. We need to understand why there is such frustration among the public regarding the issue of waste in public expenditure. It is because people are lacking basic access to services, especially access to appropriate school places for those with special needs and access to disability services. People are really struggling. They do not feel or see the State delivering for them. That is why, when they see the likes of the bike shed, they are absolutely bursting with anger and frustration, as we saw on the doorsteps during the election. It is understandable. I will look at an issue in my constituency, that of metro north. This was first promised in 2005.”
“This has replaced the priority for local authorities to deliver housing themselves or to facilitate delivery by others. In some key relevant areas, there is limited access to the necessary staff and financial resources to facilitate the delivery of homes to meet housing requirements. I ask the Ministers to increase the resources to the local authorities so they get what they need. We have alternative ways of delivering housing. Will the Ministers look at other schemes and areas, such as the previously discussed Livret A scheme in France? We could leverage €160 billion into social and affordable housing delivery. We do not need the funds. We can do it ourselves in this country. The money is here and we need to develop the capacity to do it. I ask the Ministers to consider that.”
“Prior to that, during the Celtic Tiger, councils were told, "You no longer do housing." It is very welcome to now see a shift towards needing local authorities to deliver social housing again. However, questions remains. Why are they not doing it on the scale needed? Why are they not meeting their own targets? Why are councils and housing bodies buying from the market rather than delivering them themselves? The Commission clearly states: The Housing Commission has found that local government has experienced limited access to the necessary staff and financial resources to facilitate the delivery of homes to meet housing requirements. The remit of local authorities has been weakened by policies that direct their role and resources towards control, rather than enablement and facilitation.”
“The Commission is of the view that such an approach is applicable in the Irish constitutional context and that constitutionalising a right of access to adequate housing would provide a guarantee which would evolve over time. I ask the Minister to reconsider what seems to be his lack of engagement or a decision not to pursue a right to housing in the Constitution. We will push for it again. Local authorities and bureaucracy have been discussed during this debate. We need to be straight here, and I will be. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael moved away from social housing about 30 years ago. They decided social housing and the councils did not work and were not the way to deliver social housing. The move was under Part V to get developers to provide social housing. It was a policy made in 2011.”
“Why is the Government not willing to protect families from eviction when the number one cause of family homelessness is families being evicted from the private rental sector? The Government could implement a ban on no-fault evictions into homelessness. That would be an emergency policy measure and it could be done. Another area I want to speak on, which is linked to the report, is the right to housing. Again, it is disappointing that the Minister did not mention it. Is the Government saying it will not look at this? Is the Government saying it will not implement a right to housing, which is recommended by the commission? It said: International experience with constitutionalising rights to housing has demonstrated that changes tend to be incremental ...”
“There are children who have urgent requirements in terms of additional needs, something we saw on Monday night where children with autism or those who require serious medical intervention are growing up in emergency accommodation. How is that acceptable? We have to go beyond figures and say that some things are unacceptable to us as a country, nation and Government. How can we stand over 4,500 children being homeless? I have done the analysis. It is clear that we have failed to protect renters from eviction because of the fear or policy decision that it will somehow deter investment. In debate after debate on proposals brought forward to implement stronger protections from eviction for tenants, the argument has been made by previous Governments that they cannot do that because it will deter investment.”
“That is urgently needed, given what the Minister did not mention, namely, the issue of homelessness. I was disappointed the Minister did not mention it. I did not hear him mention it; I am open to correction. I was sure that was an oversight, but it might be indicative of the Department's, rather than the Minister's, lack of focus and concern about the issue of homelessness. I ask that the Minister put a focus on homelessness and end what we saw on Monday night, in terms of children growing up in homelessness. As I am sure is the case in the Minister's constituency, in my constituency babies are being born into homelessness and emergency accommodation. As parents, how can we stand over that?”
“The Taoiseach said that rent pressure zones are being reviewed. The Minister knows that hundreds of thousands of renters across this country are living with anxiety and fear of the rents being increased and being evicted if we bring in a system whereby rents can be increased between tenancies. If there are no rental protections in place from eviction, then we will see a wholesale eviction of tenants, even worse we are what we are seeing now. Until we have a very clear system that will not allow rents to rise from the end of this year, we should pause the idea that rent pressure zones will change at the end of this year. Renters need that security. We have argued for a rent freeze for three years and the implementation of a no-fault ban on evictions.”
“Across this city, we can see that the majority of homes being built are apartments. Can we examine different forms of lower scale housing delivery, such as those in Amsterdam and Copenhagen? Housing in those cities comprises four-, five- or even six-storey developments, rather than 12-storey apartment blocks which, of course, are what the institutional funds want. I am raising this because I do not agree with the idea that we have to rely on EU institutional funds to fund our housing. By buying into that, we are following the consequential decision that rents have to be raised across the board. That is the argument such funds have been making and, unfortunately, it seems to be what the Government is planning to do. The Minister mentioned a review of the rent pressure zones. We need to give renters that guarantee.”
“I believe it is what we need and that is the scale of delivery by the public sector, through the State, that is required. This brings me to the narrative that the State is doing all it can. It is not. We will have a surplus of €9 billion. The Minister mentioned different sources of funding available to deliver to the State in different forms. Reference was made to the Apple money. We will have a significant budget surplus. I ask for a response from the Minister to my next point. The requirement of funding referenced is €20 billion. That makes an assumption that 65% of all new homes will be apartments, given the figures presented by the Housing Commission. On the other hand, if we provide 35% of all new homes as apartments, we would reduce the cost to €16 billion. Currently, we are delivering between 28% and 30% of our homes as apartments.”
“Why is the proposal for the housing delivery office different from what I read is the proposal in the commission's report for a housing executive oversight body? I want an explanation for that. It seems that the Minister's proposal is different and I wonder why that is the case. It seems a much more limited proposal. There is another issue in the report, namely, the question of the 20% social housing target. Does the Minister agree with that? Does he have a timeframe for its delivery? I extrapolated the figures. If we aim to reach 20% of housing stock as being social or cost-rental housing by 2035, for example, that would mean we would need to deliver 30,000 social and cost-rental homes every year. Is that something the Minister wants to aim for? Is it a target?”
“I thank the Housing Commission members for producing the report. It is an important piece of work. I do not agree with all of it and there are issues with people who have vested interests in the property industry playing quite an influential role in policy. For example, regarding healthcare I will make the point again and again in the coming months and years that we do not bring in private operators or private hospitals to tell us how to run our public health system or develop Sláintecare policy. In developing the new Housing for All iteration, I ask that the Minister focus on housing needs. I ask that he focus not on vested interests, but rather the policies that are needed to ensure that people have affordable housing. Regarding the report, I want to ask the Minister about a couple of things.”
“I wish the Minister and Minister of State the best of luck. It is going to be a tough job. All of us here know it is the most serious issue facing the country. I have described it as a social disaster and a social catastrophe. The Minister and Minister of State know it is too. I often speak very passionately and very emotionally and bring forward the cases and human reality of the crisis and I will continue to because we should not get away from that. Every day hundreds of thousands of people in this country are living this crisis. As I have described, it is causing a mental health crisis. It is causing many young people to leave this country - they are giving up. While I appreciate that the Minister is going to do his best, we need to focus on and give time to a discussion on the solutions that will solve this crisis for those people.”
“Thousands of children with disabilities up and down this country are waiting for vital services, therapies and school places. We have been raising their cases in the Dáil. I raised the case of Noah who is autistic and non-verbal, and of Jack who is six. Is it acceptable to the Tánaiste that children are left without services and school places? We know early intervention is key. Will the Tánaiste meet the parents protesting tomorrow outside the Department of Education for school places? Does he agree it is an utter failure of this State that children are left without vital services and school places? Does he accept it is a breach of their constitutional right to education? Will the Tánaiste give a commitment to this House today that all children with autism and special needs will be guaranteed a school place this September?”
“The Minister of State set out the ambition to, for example, introduce specific recruitment and retention initiatives and while they are badly needed, we need to see urgent action on them. We need staff numbers in CDNTs to be increased and therapies provided. Parents explain that just getting a contact and being told they can be part of a webinar or group workshop is not a service in terms of a therapy their children need. We cannot simply say that this is enough or that it is acceptable. The children and their families need it, so I am calling on the Government to put a greater focus on this and not accept these waiting lists as being tolerable.”
“The response, while welcome, is inadequate. If we look at the situation facing these families, particularly the children, they cannot wait. They cannot be left waiting for months and years for access to basic services and assessments of need. Early intervention is absolutely key in this regard. These families are struggling. I have spoken to them and they have contacted me. I have met them during the election on the doors. The level of stress and anxiety that parents of children with additional needs, disabilities, autism or ADHD experience is unacceptable. Bringing it back to the children again, every day, week and month of delay in the context of intervention has long-term impacts on those children, reducing their potential and quality of life. We should not accept it.”
“They were contacted by the HSE asking them to consent to an incomplete assessment of need, one without his report from the National Council for Special Education and with no forecast date for completion, which would render it effectively useless in securing a school placement. I wish to ask the Minister for children, disability and equality, Deputy Foley, what will she do to ensure that children like Jack and Noah and the thousands of other children in north Dublin have access to the therapies, support services and school places they need.”
“This is the second year running that he has not received a place. I spoke to his mother, Susan, who explained the level of stress and anxiety that she and her family experience because of the lack of services and clarity around a school place. This situation is not acceptable. Noah, another child, is three years old. He is non-verbal and severely autistic. After initially having his referrals to the CDNT rejected, he was finally referred two years later only after an emotional appeal from his mother. In October 2024, Noah’s family had to secure legal representation to compel the HSE to complete his assessment of need. They are still waiting for that assessment.”
“When it comes to CDNTs, the situation is just as bleak. The most recent data for the CHO 9 area showed 2,596 children waiting for an initial contact with a CDNT at the end of last year and almost 90% of those children had been waiting for more than one year. This is again the same area of north Dublin with the highest number of children waiting for more than 12 months for initial contact with a CDNT. This is unacceptable. I wish to highlight two cases that have been raised with me. The first concerns Jack who is six and who needs an autism class. He has been tossed around between primary care and a CDNT and has still not received an assessment of need, a diagnosis or therapy. He is six years old and has still not received a school place confirmed for the 2025-26 school year.”
“This Friday, we will see parents, who are stressed up to their eyeballs, courageously holding a 24-hour sleep-out at the Department of Education because of the failure to provide special education school places. Figures provided by the HSE show that 14,221 applications for assessments of need nationally were overdue for completion by the end of last year. Almost one in four of those overdue assessments are in the area of community health organisation, CHO, 9, which includes my constituency. In this area, which comprises north Dublin, including areas like Ballymun, Finglas, Santry and Glasnevin, there were 3,193 overdue applications. Some 2,791 of the children to whom those cases relate had been waiting more than three months. Under the Disability Act, an assessment of need must be completed within six months.”
“This issue relates to access to services for children with disabilities. The Government is utterly failing a generation of children with disabilities and their families. We can see this clearly in Dublin North-West, the area I represent. The children’s disability network teams, CDNTs, are under-resourced and there are unacceptable delays in assessments, with multi-year waiting lists for therapies. The teams fail to provide the vital and urgent care children and their families need. The failure to provide assessments of need is impacting on children’s ability to access other services, especially their access to education and preschool, primary school and secondary school places.”
“The question is not where we will get the private finance from but why we are not using the public funds available to deliver social and affordable housing through our local authorities and our not-for-profit housing bodies. In our health system, we do not say to people that we are restricting the funding and restricting their access to accident and emergency or to maternity care because the State has decided the private sector has to deliver them and if the private sector does not deliver the accident and emergency wards or the GPs, they will not get access to healthcare. In housing, the State has to guarantee and deliver the homes people need. That is the Government's responsibility, it is the State's responsibility, and it is time we got the policy changed to do that.”
“We have put forward very clear solutions today. One is to develop a new State savings scheme that would provide additional finance – we have €160 billion in deposits – to build social and affordable housing. We have heard in the debate from people across this country who are very clear that the councils, our local authorities, are not funded sufficiently to develop on land banks, tackle vacancy and tackle dereliction. They do not have the capacity to deliver the affordable and social homes that are needed, so we still need to see the radical reset of housing policy. We have suggested that the Government put an additional €2.5 billion into local authorities and not-for-profit housing bodies to deliver the housing.”
“We do not agree with this and believe there is an alternative way. The Minister claims the State is doing all it can. That is misleading. It is not doing all it can. In this regard, consider the delays affecting the tenant in situ scheme and the failure to protect tenants from eviction. Just 2,000 homes were liable for the vacant property tax last year when there are at least 88,000 vacant homes. The Minister talks about the private sector. A significant proportion of the overall housing budget is going directly to the private sector not to build homes but as an income stream, through the rental accommodation scheme, the housing assistance payment and social housing leasing. Every year, some €1.5 billion goes to the private sector. It does not deliver homes but takes money out of the public budget.”
“I appreciate the Minister coming in for the last ten minutes of the debate. I look forward to hearing from him the reason he was not here earlier. I believe, in all fairness, that it is disrespectful for the Minister to claim he was present for a debate when he arrived in at the very end. It is indicative of a Government that is unwilling to listen to new ideas. When this country was dirt poor, the State built houses. It built the estates of Marino, Crumlin and Ballymun. In towns and cities across the country, councils built housing for our people. Now, however, with unprecedented wealth, we say we cannot do it. We have to bring in global vulture funds and hand our young people over to them to become income streams for them in perpetuity, to become permanent renters in poverty.”
“We have put forward a proposal for State funding of €2.3 billion per annum that would deliver an additional 10,000 affordable purchase and 5,000 cost-rental homes on top of current targets. Finally, we call on the Government to retain the rent pressure zones until there is an alternative system in place that can protect renters. The Government should make a clear statement that rent pressure zone caps will not be lifted at the end of this year, given that rents are already unaffordable for renters and renters are experiencing huge anxiety at the suggestion that the rent caps could be ended this year.”