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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“We need a policy change - a dramatic change - and we need investment in our future so that we do not leave ourselves in this situation again. We need investments in solar panels and in renewable energy, and not hand it over to the private market and leave it to the private market in terms of who can and who cannot afford it. The State has to lead because there is massive inequality in this country between those who can afford the solar panels, renewable energies and the EV cars and those who are stuck in mouldy, damp properties. They cannot afford the rent or solar panels. It is not acceptable and the Social Democrats do not accept it. We believe there is a much better way. That is why we put forward this motion and we will continue to push it.”
“One in four of every child in this country is living in poverty after their family pays their rent or their mortgage and the Government says its policies are working and it is doing all it can. This is an absolute failure. In one of the so-called wealthiest countries in the world, 320,000 children live in poverty and the Government has increased rents. It has done nothing to stop house prices rising even more and acts as if this cost-of-living crisis has nothing to do with it when fundamental parts of it are because of its policies. We in the Social Democrats have put forward solution after solution which the Government has ignored. That is why people across this country are so angry and frustrated and we are too.”
“It is extremely frustrating to come back in here and put forward these proposals. We put forward key, targeted proposals for the budget last year and the Government completely ignored them. The Government has thrown its hands up and said the cost-of-living crisis is down to an international situation. It is blaming global oil prices for the cost-of-living crisis but the reality is core aspects of this cost-of-living crisis are down to the Government’s own policies. What did the Government do just two months ago in the middle of this cost-of-living crisis? It allowed rents to be increased further for institutional investors and corporate landlords. Record rents were allowed to be increased even higher. After households pay their bills, rents and mortgages, in this country, how many children are in poverty?”
“If we want to deliver critical infrastructure, particularly housing, rapidly, why do we not set up a State construction company with the capacity to directly deliver, rather than relying year after year on a private sector that is failing to deliver, that is not being prioritised and that is taking the State for a ride in terms of value for money?”
“A message came from my constituency office today about creches, with regard to parents trying to find creches in the constituency but not being able to do so. Where is the increase in funding for crèches in this? The Luas to Finglas is a transport project in my constituency. It is delayed and not due to be delivered by 2030. This is not because of a lack of prioritisation by public bodies; it is because of a lack of funding allocated to the project. The Minister should be honest. This is not a step change in how we are going to see critical infrastructure delivered in this country. As I said, to a certain extent the Bill appears to be a smokescreen to allow the Government to pretend it is doing something. Nothing has fundamentally changed, however.”
“For crying out loud, Fine Gael has been in government for 15 years, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been in government together for six years, and this is what the Minister has, a Bill to get public bodies to prioritise critical infrastructure. Why are they not doing that already? Why does the Government not have public bodies doing this? I believe this is a smokescreen. It is a fig leaf to put across the idea that it is doing something. It is not going to fundamentally change how infrastructure is delivered in this country. It is going to be the same model of reliance on the private sector, the same model of reliance on outsourcing and the same chronic underfunding of infrastructure.”
“In this new Bill there is no step change away from this outsourcing and the overreliance on the private model of delivery of infrastructure. Why are we in the situation we are with the children's hospital? Why are we in the situation we are with the lack of infrastructure? It is in large part because the State has handed over the delivery of infrastructure to the private sector. We have local authorities and we can go through our State agencies. The Bill is incredible to me, and in reading through it and the explanatory memorandum I wonder whether the Minister is having a laugh. He is saying that what this is about is getting public bodies to prioritise critical infrastructure, and the other part is about getting public bodies to co-operate and co-ordinate with each other.”
“I have been researching and critically analysing Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael's infrastructure policy for almost 20 years. In fact, I did my PhD on it, specifically on infrastructure and how it was developed during the Celtic tiger period. Back then, 20 years ago, the key policy of Fianna Fáil was to have public-private partnerships deliver infrastructure through new ways which were, essentially, handing our public infrastructure over to big global infrastructure providers that saw infrastructure as a commodity through those public-private partnerships in wastewater, social housing and transport. It utterly failed and we then had a decade of austerity, during which the Government failed again and cut back capital projects.”
“Yet, it had no issue in giving over €1 billion in tax cuts to fast-food giants and the VAT cut to developers, investor landlords and funds in the budget - €1 billion each year will go to them yet when it comes to disabled people or children in poverty, the Government says it is not fiscally sustainable and we have to wait. This Government has its priorities all wrong. It is not listening to the people struggling in this cost-of-living crisis that has been going on for many years. We will continue to push for these measures and to push this Government until it listens and makes the changes needed.”
“It is vulnerable people who lose out and this Government has not and does not prioritise them. It is the same in the area of housing. I have made the point over and over and we have highlighted it. We are talking about a cost-of-living crisis. Imagine being evicted from your home. You cannot afford to get somewhere to rent so you go into emergency accommodation, which is an expense to the State. Young people are essentially having to emigrate because they cannot afford to rent, and this Government just stands by and says it is international issues, inflation hurts everyone and it can only do what is fiscally sustainable.”
“The Minister of State might understand why it is extremely frustrating for people across the country and for us here that the Government says it is listening, doing what it can, it hears us and is making changes. I just listed a number of targeted measures that would make a real difference to people's lives. Those measures are costed and the money is available to do them. Why is the Government not doing it? A targeted energy credit and an emergency cost-of-disability payment are two things the Government could do. I have racked my brain to understand why the Government is not doing it. Surely, as a Government, it wants to get re-elected and understands it has the money. I think it is a question of political priority. As a result of the budget, there was a €1,400 cut for disabled people. They effectively received a cut in the budget.”
“This is a cost-of-living crisis that has been going on for almost five years. The lack of self-awareness on the part of the Government is really frustrating and disappointing. What we saw last week was an expression of how people are struggling. It was one section of society but so many people are struggling. At the time of the most recent budget, we in the Social Democrats put forward an alternative budget that included targeted measures but the Government ignored us. We put forward a proposal for an emergency cost-of-disability payment in March which was ignored by the Government. We put forward a proposal, and will bring it forward again tomorrow, for a targeted energy credit of €400 per home to help those with an income of €70,000 or under. The Government has ignored it.”
“We have, shamefully, almost 5,500 children living in homelessness. They are in a form of poverty. People cannot afford the rent. They cannot afford the house prices. The cost-of-living crisis is hitting them as well. We have an economy that is deeply unequal. I spoke before about how, in a way, we have two Irelands. We actually have many Irelands but there is a deep division between those who can afford this high-cost economy and those who cannot and who are really struggling. This Government is not doing enough for them and needs to structurally change our economy so people can afford to live in this country.”
“It goes on and we know it. People try to get as much as they can and they try to make as much as they can, and people feel it. They ask why prices are increasing so much. We need action from the Government to stabilise prices, and when people are price gouging, they should be fined properly. This is not happening enough because there is a gap between the amount by which wholesale gas, wholesale electricity and wholesale food costs are going up and what people are actually being forced to pay. The gas prices people are being charged have increased 100% since 2021. What we also need to talk about, and what was not mentioned enough at all last week, is inequality - the gap in respect of those children who are in poverty in this country. We have one in five children living in poverty. In some form, they are affected by poverty.”
“The cost of living is eroding their dreams even further. We have 320,000 people in arrears. We have families who are deciding whether they can afford to go to the GP this week. I call out the Government's failure to achieve its commitments on free GP care for children. It would be a measure that would help families. This is not all about short-term measures. There are fundamental changes needed in how we deliver public services and their affordability in transport and in childcare. These are all eating into people's weekly wages and their income. We have a fundamental problem in this country. Our cost of living is 34% higher than the EU average. There are many reasons for this and one of them, which the Government has acknowledged, is the price gouging and profit gouging that is going on. I call it cute hoor capitalism in Ireland.”
“We voted no confidence in the Government today because from our perspective, from what we see and from what our constituents tell us, people are struggling and suffering. They are being devastated by a cost-of-living crisis. What we are being told about the reality of people's lives is that they cannot cover the basics. There are people in this country right now who are choosing whether or not to turn on the heating. I was in Artane in my constituency last week, talking to people at the doors. Elderly people told me they were looking at when they turned the heat on because they did not have enough money and they could not cover it. This is the reality. There are elderly people and disabled people, and I know the Tánaiste knows this. There are also young people who are trying to save for a deposit to buy a home.”
“The tenant in situ scheme has been cut. The new measures do not apply to hundreds of thousands of existing rental households. What is the Government doing to prevent more evictions, to prevent these people from being evicted and to ensure these people have somewhere to go to? Where are these elderly people going to go?”
“I will raise the issue of evictions, which I raised last week. The Tánaiste has probably heard that a number of people are facing eviction from a retirement village in Sligo. I am completely shocked by this. It is described as involving people in their 80s and couples. One couple in their 80s have a child with disabilities in his 50s who is facing eviction from this place, which is a retirement home. There is another example in Galway, with a mass eviction at Cúirt Éigis in Ballybane, where 14 households have received a termination to quit their home. We are seeing thousands of these cases across the country. I am really concerned that the lack of action from this Government to prevent these evictions is leading to huge misery and trauma. People cannot find properties within the housing assistance payment, HAP.”
“What I have done with this Bill is bring forward its recommendation to amend Article 40 to insert in the Constitution a very clear right to housing. The new Article 40A of our Constitution would provide that the State recognises that having a home is of fundamental importance to quality of life and that access to adequate housing by facilitating the development of family, social and community relationships promotes the common good. The second part of the proposed new article provides that "the State therefore guarantees to every Citizen a right of access to adequate housing and pledges, as far as practicable, by its laws, to protect and vindicate that right." Inserting that right into our Constitution would provide a clear obligation on the State to deliver housing.”
“It has become an entrenched social problem whereby children are left homeless for years in emergency accommodation. Over 2,500 children have spent more than one year in emergency accommodation. Many European countries, such as Finland, Belgium, Portugal and Sweden, include the right to housing in their constitutions. The Constitution is the ultimate repository of our national values. Indeed, there is no legal right to housing in Irish law, in our legislation or currently in the Constitution. The Housing Commission was given the job by the previous Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael Government to develop recommendations in relation to a referendum on the right to housing. It brought forward a proposal two years ago and recommended in its report that a right to housing should be inserted in our Constitution.”
“It provides the secure base from which to carry out all of life's functions. The impact of housing is most clearly visible in the devastating physical and mental health impacts of homelessness on children in particular. Hundreds of thousands of people in Ireland do not have access to the right to housing and do not have access to adequate housing. I refer to renters living in insecure housing who are paying rents that leave them in poverty, to younger generations living in overcrowded accommodation who are unable to leave the family home because of a lack of affordable housing, and to those who are homeless. Homelessness is described by the United Nations as "the most egregious violation of the right to housing", yet homelessness in Ireland has become normalised.”
“Is riachtanas bunúsach é teach, agus is ceart bunúsach daonna é, ach fós ní chuirtear síos air ná ní dhéantar é a chóireáil mar cheart daonna uair amháin inár mbeartais, inár ndlíthe ná inár mBunreacht. Bainfear amach an t-athrú bunúsach i dtithíocht nuair a athróimid go bunúsach an chaoi a gcaitheann an Rialtas agus an Stát le tithíocht agus í a sheachadadh; is é sin í a chóireáil go cinnte agus í sheachadadh mar cheart daonna. Hundreds of thousands of people in Ireland lack a secure, affordable home. A safe, secure home at a decent standard is central to our very existence, our physical health and our psychological well-being. It is necessary to facilitate child development and full citizen participation in society and the economy. A home is central to the dignity of each and every person and is the foundation of every person's life.”
“A home is a fundamental need and a fundamental right, yet not once in policy, in our laws or in our Constitution is housing described or treated as a human right. The fundamental change in housing that is so urgently needed will be achieved when we fundamentally change how the Government and the State treat and deliver housing. It needs to be delivered and treated as a human right. Is é seo mo chéad Bhille i nDáil Éireann. Is í aidhm an Bhille um an Aonú Leasú is Daichead ar an mBunreacht (Ceart chun Tithíochta), 2026 ná cearta tithíochta a chur i mBunreacht na hÉireann. Is í seo an cheist is tromchúisí inár dtír. Is éigeandáil agus tubaiste sóisialta é.”
“Tairgim: “Go gceadófar go dtabharfar isteach Bille dá ngairtear Acht chun an Bunreacht a leasú.” I move: “That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Constitution.” This is my first Bill to be brought forward in Dáil Éireann. The Forty-first Amendment of the Constitution (Right to Housing) Bill 2026 seeks to put a right to housing into Bunreacht na hÉireann. The housing crisis is the most serious issue facing our country. It is an emergency and a social catastrophe. The most shameful thing is that it is the Government's policies that have created this crisis. I refer, for example, to the way it has turned housing into an investment asset and failed over and over to treat it as a human right. Housing is a human right. Is ceart daonna í an tithíocht.”
“Those children have a right and a need to be safe. If that was in Foxrock, does the Minister think walking past open drug dealing to get to a primary school would be allowed? It would not be tolerated for a second and we should not tolerate it anywhere.”
“It is inequality and entrenched deprivation and neglect. To tackle it now we need community policing. We need increased levels of community policing and visible gardaí. The community says that as soon as gardaí are visible, standing there, the drug dealing moves off somewhere else. There is not enough policing there or community gardaí. We need it. The Irish Times today has a report showing that children as young as six are being groomed into drug dealing. I know it is happening – it is happening in my own community, in the inner city and in communities across this country. It is not acceptable. I know the Minister does not think it is acceptable but what is he going to do about it? Is he going to ensure that communities that are suffering deprivation like Finglas or Ballymun are as safe as anywhere else?”
“I represent the constituency of Dublin North-West. The communities of Finglas and Ballymun have some of the highest deprivation in this country. The Minister has been out to visit us in Ballymun. I was at a community safety meeting in Ballymun just two weeks ago where members of the community outlined how there are primary school children walking to school past drug dealing. There is open drug dealing going on outside a school while children are walking to school. These children are not safe. These communities are not safe. It is the Minister’s responsibility and that of this Government to ensure that children can walk to primary school without having to pass open drug dealing. Those communities are not safe and they do not feel safe. People cannot go to the shops. What is the core of the issue?”
“That was last year, before the current increases, which shows the Government is completely ignoring a cost-of-living crisis and a level of poverty that is completely unacceptable. As I said, it is Scrooge for ordinary people and Santa Claus for the wealthy investors and the big fast-food giants. It is shameful that the Government is not providing a sufficient response for people. Nor is it tackling the issue of price gouging and profiteering, which we know is going on again at the pumps and with the oil providers. The energy costs are crippling for people. People are choosing between heating and eating and it is not good enough. The Social Democrats have called for a targeted energy credit which could really help people. Why is the Government not doing that? It is unacceptable and we will continue to call it out.”
“It is Scrooge for ordinary people and it is Santa Claus for the investor funds, the developers and the fast-food giants. The Government is giving over €1 billion this year in public money to investor funds and fast-food giants, yet it turns around to ordinary people and says, "We have to wait. We're not quite sure if we can give you the money yet." The Government has billions sitting in a surplus while, as I said, one in four children is living in poverty. It gets even worse. The rate of lone parents living in deprivation stands at 49%, and that has increased since 2023. The number of renters getting no rental supports who are living in poverty has increased from 36% in 2023 to 43%.”
“The response from the Government to the cost-of-living crisis that has come on top of a cost-of-living crisis is absolutely inadequate. The Government response is miserly in comparison to the scale of suffering in the country. We are seeing rising numbers of people living in poverty under this Government. The Minister claimed that the Government is addressing these issues. The Taoiseach goes on about addressing and caring about child poverty. One in four children in this country is growing up in poverty right now. The response we are seeing is absolutely inadequate. The Government's response actually means cuts for ordinary workers, ordinary families, the elderly and disabled people. Disabled people's supports were cut in the budget.”
“The parents have asked for a meeting to be held within a week with the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, the school, the company and the planners to set out not only that the planning is done, but that this school is delivered on time. It cannot be delayed any more.”
“I commend the Equality in Education campaign, the school principal, the teachers and the parents who have spoken out in the media this week to highlight this. It was deeply unfair that they had to speak out. It puts more pressure on parents who are already struggling, but they were right to speak up. Again, this has put pressure on, and it is making it a priority. I am making it a priority by saying here very clearly that I will not be letting this go. I will be pushing as hard as I can to ensure that the Department ensures that the school building is done and in place for this September, so those children have the education they deserve and need. These children, along with all children, need it. The fact that they are left there like this is wrong.”
“I thank the Minister of State. I reiterate that it is absolutely unacceptable that children are left for two hours a day - this is their education – in a community hall. The teachers have to re-set up every time. They do not have the proper toileting or sensory spaces. These are not appropriate school places. It is unfair. As one parent said last night, it is cruel for the Department and NCSE to be sanctioning and allocating school places that then are not actually being delivered. There is a real issue here. It is leading parents up the garden path. They are putting their lives on hold and taking places that then do not appear. It is unfair and not right. These parents need to have that building delivered, particularly given what has happened with the delays.”
“In those two hours, the children are getting incredible care from the school principal, teachers and the school. They do not want to have to try to find somewhere else now. The children have made relationships with the teachers. Children with autism and additional needs need routine. They need that bond and relationship they build over time and they have that. Why, in God's name, are we not ensuring these children are in proper classrooms by this September? Surely, the Department and Minister can guarantee that. There is no reason why not; it is still months away. As regards planning, this needs to go through. They will and should get it for the modular classes. I have spoken to the building unit. It is saying that it will hopefully be quarter 3 of this year when that will be delivered.”
“To give some examples of what the parents spoke about last night and in the media about how challenging it is, one parent, Rebekah Clarke, said that she had to reduce her hours to try to manage her son Arlo's shorter school day. She said: I had to come down to part-time and I have to work a weekend day so I can bring him to school. We've had to change our life dramatically, trying to find someone to mind him. It's not easy. Parents explained how they thought that school place for their child would provide the relief they need but we also heard from other parents on that. For two hours a day, they have to come over and travel to leave the child. They literally walk around Finglas to then pick up the child again within a couple of hours. People are losing their jobs.”
“Can the Minister of State outline what is going to be done in this regard? It appears, from talking to different groups involved and in speaking directly to the building unit of the Department of education today, that there has been a failure in ensuring timely delivery, planning and information. Moreover, it seems to have fallen between the Department and the company that was taken on to deliver this. Regardless, the responsibility to ensure these children have the education to which they have a constitutional right falls with the Department. It is the Department of education and the Minister who is responsible in ensuring they get that education.”
“I want to raise the issue of children in my constituency who are currently attending the Finglas Parochial National School. These children have additional needs and should be prioritised and yet do not have the classes they were promised and for which the school was sanctioned in 2024. These children are spending two hours a day in a community hall and this is not good enough. These children should be in classrooms receiving the education they have a constitutional right to and which they need. I was at a public meeting in Finglas last night where the parents again outlined the devastating impact of their children not getting the full education they need, as well as their despair and concern because the promised delivery to the school could now be in 2027. This is an absolutely unacceptable delay in terms of delivery of that classroom.”
“We need an emergency ban on no-fault evictions. We need a State construction company to build affordable homes that people can actually afford to buy across this country. Will the Tánaiste do that?”
“Younger generations, renters and workers are being broken by the Government's housing policy failures. Today, we hear that last year there were 20,000 eviction notices issued to private renters, the highest we have seen since the Famine, and up 41% in the last quarter, made worse by the rent hike Bill. We are seeing evictions increasing on a scale we have not seen in this country. These evictions are causing a trauma to every person who is experiencing them, while house prices are also spiralling out of control. Younger generations cannot afford the rent hikes. They cannot afford to buy a home. They cannot afford to start their lives or to start a family. Does the Tánaiste accept that for younger people and workers in this country the housing crisis and the Government's policies are causing a social catastrophe?”
“Why is the Government not immediately moving to implement the targeted energy credit we proposed, along with a cost-of-disability payment, an emergency payment? These are two things it could do right now. With the cost-of-living crisis, people will be choosing tonight - they are already choosing - between heating and eating. The cost-of-living crisis is out of control and this war, with the spike in prices, will make it worse, in particular when we do not have protections against the profit-gouging and price-gouging that is going on. The Government is only using words. We have not seen real action to tackle that. We know profit- and price-gouging are going on. We have seen it, we are living it and the Government must take action to stand up and ensure the people of Ireland do not pay for Trump's war.”
“The Government should be leading a genuine movement for peace, bringing governments together that want to rebuild the United Nations as a place that can create peace. Ireland cannot be complicit in another illegal war for oil. We will not stand for it. The people of Ireland do not want to see that. The other aspect of this that needs to be called out is the cost-of-living crisis. This war is now putting us into a cost-of-living crisis on top of a cost-of-living crisis. The Tánaiste said earlier that the Government will keep under review how it responds, acting as though there were not already a cost-of-living crisis going on. There are 320,000 people in arrears on their electricity bills. One in every four gas customers is in arrears. People are having to choose between eating and heating.”
“The Government should support the FAI to boycott that game that will legitimise apartheid and a genocidal war. We can build an alternative to this dystopian world of ever increasing war and invasion. What is Trump and Netanyahu's endgame? There is none. It is endless war, bombing, taking over countries, people being killed and children being murdered. There has to be an alternative and Ireland, with its history, knows the impact of colonialism and imperialism. There is an alternative. It is the United Nations, our neutrality and standing with governments like the Spanish one and calling it out for what it is. It is wrong. It is illegal. Of course, there is an alternative. Bombs do not bring peace; negotiations and diplomacy do. Investing in and supporting people brings about peace.”
“How can we stand over this? The Irish people do not agree with it. We are calling on the Government to stop all US and Israeli military use of Irish airspace and airports. Caithfidh an Rialtas stop a chur le húsáid aerspás agus aerfoirt na hÉireann ag fórsaí mileáta na Stát Aontaithe agus Iosrael. We must implement the occupied territories Bill. That is an action the Government could take right now and it would send a message that we stand on the side of peace. The Government should send a message of solidarity to the Spanish Government that we stand with Spain, with a Spanish Prime Minister who is willing and brave enough to call this out as what it is, a breach of international law. Least of all, how in God's name can Ireland play Israel in a game of soccer with a genocidal war going on?”
“Why will it not condemn this illegal war and the US-Israeli bombing of Iran? Why will it not condemn it? The Government knows Trump is just distracting from his domestic failures and from his population, which is suffering from a cost-of-living crisis while billionaires rake in more and more. Thousands are being killed and the lives of Irish peacekeepers are being put in danger, as well as thousands of Irish people in the region. The Government must stand up, condemn this breach of international law and take the action that shows we - and I know it is where the people of Ireland want us to be - are on the side of peace. It is about us asserting a neutrality that stands for peace, not facilitating warmongers. We know our airspace and airports are being used by the US military and Israel to facilitate the transport of weapons.”
“The US and Israel are bombing Iran in a clear breach of international law. We have seen this playbook in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is not about regime change for the people of Iran; it is about regime change for US and Israeli interests. You do not bomb a school, killing hundreds of children, while claiming to stand for peace. Israel is bombing Lebanon. It is continuing its genocidal war in Gaza. The Government must call this out for what it is. It is wrong, illegal and it will not bring peace. This is about neocolonialism in the 21st century. It is about control over oil, resources and countries. This is about two out-of-control bully boys and warmongers, Trump and Netanyahu, who are trying to reshape the world in their dystopian view of what humanity should be. It is not about peace. Why is the Government cowering in silence?”
“I am very concerned because what we saw from the previous Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael Government was a commitment to address gazumping, ghost bids and the problems in the market. I am deeply concerned because the Minister is again making commitments to review it but I am not sure about the timeline for delivering changes and action on this. You can read article after article about this. We have examples of estate agents using AI photos to show potential properties and the ads regulator not enforcing. There are massive problems in our housing market that are adding to house price inflation. We cannot just let this be a review of a policy that sits on a shelf. We need to see action and I want the Minister to outline a timeframe for action on this.”
“We need action. Does the Minister accept there is a problem around bidding in the housing market that is adding to house price inflation?”
“Does the Minister accept that we have a serious problem in our housing market? We can look at it in terms of the gap between advertised sale prices and actual selling prices. We have a problem with that massive gulf and it is ordinary people - families and individuals - who are being squeezed on house prices, which are absolutely unaffordable. What is happening in the housing market can be seen on the Crazy House Prices Instagram page. People are highlighting it. This is going on right now. There is case after case of people being gazumped. There are ghost bids with people putting in a bid in with a price, then it says it has been withdrawn, then it says it does not exist and all the time the house prices are going up. The Minister can do something about this. We need action quickly on this, not just another report that sits on a shelf.”
“House prices are completely out of control and have been for a long time. They have increased by 68% since 2020 when Fianna Fáil took over the housing Ministry - 68%. In Dublin, the median price of a home is €500,000. That is half a million euro for a home. What is the Minister doing to address the issues that are contributing to inflation in the market, such as dysfunction in our housing market, ghost bids, gazumping and opaque bidding processes? What is he doing to address that?”
“Will he increase the funding to the tenant in situ scheme to include funding for refurbishment so that councils can actually implement the tenant in situ scheme and prevent homelessness?”