Labour has become Fine Gael blue lite

In Tuam there are dozens of local authority houses lying vacant because of the want of funding from Minister Alan Kelly's Department, Fianna Fáil Deputy Colm Keaveney told the Dáil.

Speaking during a debate on a Fianna Fáil motion on social housing, he said there are hundreds of houses across the West looking for new tenants who are crying out for a home. “The Minister has managed to cap the spending on the refurbishment of such homes at €30,000, which has resulted in Galway County Council being left with no option but to board up those houses and leave them vacant,” he said. “Neighbourhoods in Tuam, Gort, Athenry and Loughrea have been dotted with many of these houses; they have been broken into, looted and have become a source of anti-social behaviour. These have become unpleasant communities to live in because of this Government's failure to address adequately the under-funding from local authorities to renew those houses. Having such homes vacant also means there are no longer houses for people who have been waiting for years and the social housing waiting lists continue to grow. In my home town there is a family with three children who are now in their fourth month living in a hotel. There is a couple who have slept in a turf shed under the Minister's watch for the last six months waiting to be housed.”

Deputy Keaveney said the Government has secured a ceiling of supports, which the Tánaiste stubbornly refuses to move, contrary to the advice of all the experts in that area and organisations working on the front line of homeless people in this country.

“The Labour Party turned its back on the homeless and vulnerable,” he said. “The Tánaiste who styles herself and her party as social democrats seems to think the primary purpose of rent is to support the rental market. That is the Government's legacy. Its intransigence is fuelled by the ethos of its senior party in Government. The Labour Party has become Fine Gael blue lite.”

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