I apologise, a Cheann Comhairle.

I apologise, a Cheann Comhairle.

Was true.

There is a seething anger in all of our communities because of the failure of the Government not just over two and a half years, not just over seven years, but over 12 years, to tackle this housing crisis. I know for some people listening in that when the anger finds its way onto the floor of the Dáil in angry exchanges, it might make for hard listening but that is nowhere near as hard as it is to sit with families week in and week out as we do in our constituency clinics who are facing the consequences of the fail…

We have never opposed-----

No. We have never done that. Our document said it and the Minister of State knows that.

Let me conclude by saying this, Minister of State. Twelve years you been in government. In those 12 years, homelessness has increased every single year. There has been a 250% increase in homelessness since your party took office. That is your record, that is your legacy, that is why you have to go, and that is why I commend this motion to the House.

Vótáil.

Hear, hear.

Like other Deputies present, I have been watching the images, night after night, of the people of Gaza being subjected to a brutal aerial bombardment by the Government of Israel. Thousands of civilians, including hundreds of children, lie dead. As other Members have mentioned, vital public infrastructure, including hospitals and schools, have been destroyed. Vital supplies of food and medicine are running low and vital public services such as water and electricity have been shut off. On top of the sense of horror a…

The other group of workers who are being forced to consider industrial action today are the men and women who work at the front line of our homelessness services sector, funded under section 10 of the housing Acts. These are committed people who work with individuals and families who are experiencing very serious trauma, sometimes involving a combination of homelessness, addiction, mental ill health, domestic violence and other challenges. It is hard, challenging work, but the men and women who do it treat it as a …

It is telling that the Minister, in his five-minute contribution, spent only two minutes outlining his budget measures and three minutes attacking the Opposition. That is two minutes of more empty promises that will be unfulfilled and three minutes of deliberate misrepresentations of Sinn Féin's position. The reason, of course, is that yesterday we learned the emperor has no clothes. Despite the housing crisis getting ever worse year on year and despite the Government claiming housing and homelessness is its priori…

That is great.

Hear, hear.

I thank Deputy MacSharry and the organisations and individuals who have assisted him in producing this Bill. It is a Bill Sinn Féin is happy to see proceed to Committee Stage. It also gives us an opportunity to raise some related but wider issues in terms of the reform of the regulation and oversight of the buying and selling of houses. I will come to that in a moment. I also want to thank the Minister for her constructive approach in many of the concerns she has raised with the Bill. They are concerns that I and m…

There are approximately 13,000 people, including 4,000 children, sleeping in emergency accommodation funded by the Minister of State's Department. Fine Gael has been in government since 2011 and, according to the census of that year, there were only 3,808 people officially categorised as homeless. That means that in all of the time the Minister of State's party has been in government, homelessness has increased by a staggering 250%. Just let that sink in for a second. Three years ago, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael form…

It is more than 250 days since the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy O'Brien, met with homeowners affected by Celtic tiger fire safety and structural defects about a redress scheme. At that meeting, the Minister promised the homeowners three things: first, that funding would be made available this year for emergency fire safety works, particularly for those homes that are currently unsafe; second, that draft legislation would be published this year for the wider redress scheme; and third, …

Hear, hear.

That is the kiss of death.

No.