Cowen attacks Government for lack of progress on social housing

Since January 2015, an average of 80 families have been entering homelessness each month, Laois-Offaly Deputy Barry Cowen told the Dáil.

Opening a debate on a Fianna Fáil motion on Social Housing, he said there are 130,000 applicants on the waiting list. “Some 350,000 people need a house they can call their home,” he said. “This represents an increase of an amazing 45% since 2013. Young couples have been shut out of the housing market as the banks, aided by a Government-backed bank veto, have ramped up repossessions. That is what we have from five years of Fine Gael-Labour Party Government. It is not what decent people expected or bargained for when they chose to lend their votes to that combination, but unfortunately it is what they got.”

Regardless of the criticism that is labelled at this Government and this applies in other areas as well as in housing,  Deputy Cowen said it holds itself unaccountable for its five years in office. “It is seeking to blame Fianna Fáil in a rerun of the 2011 general election,” he said. “I wish to state clearly and unequivocally that the decisions taken by this Government had nothing to do with Fianna Fáil and everything to do with the Labour Party's incompetence and Fine Gael's hidden ideological agenda. It was this Government's choice to build 300 social housing units per year, which contrasts with the 3,600 units that were built each year by the previous Government. It was this Government's choice to halve the developers' social housing obligation. It was this Government's choice to bring in a host of extra building costs and thereby hold back house construction. It was this Government's choice to step back and let the banks run the show. It was this Government's choice to allow the banks a veto over people in mortgage distress. This Government can take full ownership of this crisis. People can consider that fact when they go to the polls.”

Deputy Cowen said the Government has failed miserably and abysmally to meet its own targets, even against a backdrop of the recovery and a 6% economic growth rate.

“We are told we need to keep the recovery going, but I suggest we need to spread the recovery around the country to meet the needs of all the people,” he said. “Fine Gael wants to please just 30% of the electorate. The Labour Party has been given a pat on the head and been told to paddle its own canoe, which would be grand if it could do so. The Government has failed to take the simplest measures sought by my party and by those who are at the coalface, including Deputies from all sides of the House, councillors from throughout the country and stakeholders such as the Simon Community, Focus Ireland and the Peter McVerry Trust. They have sought an increase in rent supplement and a stay in mortgage repossessions. The failure to introduce such measures shows how completely headless and adrift the Government has been. There should be no mistake about the fact that its inaction has forced and is forcing people out of their own homes and into homelessness every day.”

The Fianna Fáil motion was defeated by 63 votes to 27.