The Government has been accused of being “out of its depth” and of living in “very dangerous type of denial” about the scale of the State's housing crisis during a fiery Dáil exchange.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar gave a staunch response of his party’s track record on social housing delivery, claiming that it had doubled during his last tenure as Taoiseach.
He also claimed that Sinn Féin’s record on social housing in Northern Ireland and Labour’s in the housing portfolio was less than that delivered by his Government.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik said he had reached a new low in “ridiculous” political point-scoring, accusing the Fine Gael leader of being “smug”.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald called on the Government to reinstate the eviction ban and extend it until the end of January while further supports are put in place.
Commenting on Government claims that the measures introduced would support people, she said: “You are clearly in a state of denial and a very, very dangerous type of denial.”
Mr Varadkar, in turn, accused Sinn Féin of “gaslighting” young people, and claimed that Labour was suffering from a “crisis of confidence”.
He said that Sinn Féin’s motion scheduled for Tuesday, that calls on the Government’s Help-to-Buy scheme and First Home scheme to be ended, would impact on homeownership.
“You’ve gaslighted young people and first-time buyers into thinking that you’re on their side. You are not, you will take away the schemes that are working,” he said.
The Sinn Féin motion accuses both schemes of pushing up house prices and said they should be scrapped, and the funding diverted in favour of delivering more affordable homes instead.
Ms McDonald told TDs: “Your so-called safety nets don’t make a lick of difference to people facing eviction in the here and now. And you have no real plan to stop people losing the roof over their heads.”
Mr Varadkar claimed that figures published by the Department of Housing on Monday, which confirmed that the Government had missed its 2022 target for newly-built social homes, showed progress had been achieved.
“20,000 households provided with social housing of some form last year, their housing needs being met. 10,000 homes added to the whole social housing stock, of which about 7,500 were new builds.
“Compare that, for example, with the last year in which there was a Sinn Féin housing minister in Northern Ireland – build less than 2,000 new social houses.
“That’s a fact, and one that I don’t think you can get away from,” he said.
Ms McDonald responded that the figures published on Monday, “reflect the fact that you missed your target on affordable housing by almost 60 per cent” last year.
“Now if you count that as achievement, or if you as Taoiseach regard that as an acceptable level of performance, well then God help us all is all I can say,” she said.
In response to questions from Ms Bacik, Mr Varadkar said: “How many social homes were built the last time there was a Labour minister for housing?”
When Labour TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin interrupted to accuse the Taoiseach of “point scoring”, Mr Varadkar responded “to be accused of point-scoring by deputy Ó Ríordáin is – anyway, look.”
He continued: “The last time there was a Labour minister in housing – and yes, I was at the Cabinet table with them – 400 new social homes were built in this country. By the time (former housing minister and Fine Gael TD) Eoghan Murphy had finished in his role, we were up to around 5,000.
“The amount of social housing built in the State doubled the last time I was Taoiseach, and now under Darragh O’Brien, we’re building more social housing than any year in decades and we’re going to build more again.”
Ms Bacik: “You’ve reached a new low, that is a ridiculous attempt (of) political point scoring in the face of a brutal housing crisis – and it’s all very well smirking and being smug and self-congratulatory.
“That’s not going to help the families approaching me, approaching public representatives from Government parties and opposition parties, who have nowhere to tell people to go because there are no homes available in our communities, no affordable homes, no homes to rent, no homes for sale.
“It’s a testament to the failed policies of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and your overreliance on a private sector and on a market that has patently failed to deliver the homes that are needed,” she said.
Mr Varadkar responded: “Deputy, you simply can’t have it both ways. You can’t challenge me, my party and my coalition colleagues on our record and then lose the rag when somebody asks about yours.
“If you’re willing to criticise somebody else’s record, you have to at least be able to defend your own and you’re not willing to do that. And I think that’s very, very disappointing, but it is part of Labour’s crisis of confidence – you’ve lost confidence in yourselves.”
