Housing Plan: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-03
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Paul Donnelly (SF), Dublin West

I have listened to the speeches over the last little while and I find it incredible. Fine Gael has had 15 years and it is talking about another new plan on the abandoned plan on top of the other abandoned plan it had prior to that, which created nothing. It is absolutely scandalous to listen to the Government because it is not a new plan. It is reheated, repackaged and has already failed three times to deliver genuinely affordable and social homes. What is shocking is that the Government is now actually underestimating the number of homes required by 20%.
There has been no increase in social housing funding or targets and this means homelessness will rise and council lists will continue to get worse.
My office and our council have seen a dramatic rise in the number of those receiving notices to quit, meaning more and more children are going into homelessness. If the Minister does not believe me, just have a look at the statistics. Every single month, month on month, it is increasing.
The gouging of the funding for the tenant in situ scheme, where the council would buy the homes of those facing evictions, is an absolute disgrace. The scheme is one of the things that actually was working and preventing children and families going into homelessness. This week, I was contacted by a mother with two adult children in a two-bedroom apartment. She is a professional who worked hard and did the right things. You know when the Government said, "Do the right thing. Stay in school, go to college, get the degree and the master's, get the job, buy a home and maybe have a family if you want"? Those dreams have turned into a nightmare for a generation of people.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-03/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:24+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-03