The Leader of the Fianna Fáil Group on Dublin City Council, Cllr Paul McAuliffe has accused the government of allowing ideological grandstanding to get in the way of providing immediate relief for those in emergency accommodation and those facing eviction in Dublin.
“This budget has done nothing to secure the supply of rental properties in the short term for those in need. The government has done nothing on rent supplement, nothing on rent reforms to encourage long term and family leases, nothing to encourage landlords to take tenants with rent supplement and nothing on rent certainty,” said the Fianna Fáil candidate for Dublin North-West.
Each month 70 more people are registering in Dublin as homeless, pointed out Cllr McAuliffe. “With the monthly figure of people registering as homeless increasing all the time, the failure to provide a short term solution for those who are being forced out of their homes by rent increases is an absolute scandal. I am sickened by the Government’s choice to seek to buy the votes of some while blatantly ignoring a basic need of others.
“When Minister Kelly met me in September, he promised there would be movement to solve the shortage of rental properties. He indicated that there would be movement on rent certainty along the lines proposed by the Fr Peter McVerry Trust and by Fianna Fáil. Today we have been told that those in emergency accommodation should now wait again while Fine Gael and Labour argue about ideological matters.
“The Minister is also misleading the public when he announces an additional allocation for modular housing and emergency accommodation, these are monies which have already been promised and announced in the media by Minister Kelly over and over,” maintained Cllr McAuliffe.
