Sinn Féin leader accuses Taoiseach of being in a ‘state of denial’ regarding the housing crisis

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has accused the Taoiseach of “clearly being in a state of denial” regarding the State’s housing crisis in the Dáil on Tuesday.

Ms McDonald said Mr Varadkar appeared to “fail to grasp what’s actually happening out there in the real world”.

The Dublin Central TD was speaking during Leaders’ Questions, where there were sharp exchanges between the Taoiseach and Opposition benches.

Ms McDonald pointed to figures released by the Department of Housing on Monday evening that revealed the Government had missed its “affordable housing targets last year by nearly 60 per cent”.

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“Thousands of affordable homes that should have been built have not been built,” she said. “This is an incredible failure by Government in the middle of the most serious housing emergency in the history of the State.

“It’s why large numbers of working people can’t put an affordable and secure roof over their heads.”

The Sinn Féin leader added that the Government’s decision to end the eviction ban last month had “thrown thousands of renters to the wolves”.

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Labour leader Ivana Bacik said the figures were “more evidence of this Government’s failed policies on housing”.

Ms Bacik said upon taking office the Taoiseach “set high expectations that substantial progress on housing would be made swiftly” but that instead there had been the “same old stale policies repackaged and spun again and again”.

“Indeed, the first sentence of yesterday’s Government press release goes so far as to welcome what is in fact a failure in delivery and a failure to meet targets,” the Dublin Bay South TD said.

“You welcome that failure to meet your own targets which themselves have been accepted as being much too low, according to the Housing Commission.”

In response, Mr Varadkar said the last time there was a Labour Minister for Housing there were only 400 new social homes delivered, compared to 7,500 last year under his Government.

Ms Bacik said this was a “new low” by the Taoiseach by his “ridiculous attempt to political point scoring”.

“It’s all very well smirking and being smug and self-congratulatory, that’s not going to help the families approaching me, approaching our public representatives,” she told Mr Varadkar.

Mr Varadkar said that Labour could not “have it both ways” and spoke of a “crisis of confidence in yourselves”.

“You don’t know whether to be proud or ashamed of your last period in Government,” he said.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said it was a “crazy” and “stupid” decision by the Government to lift the eviction ban. The Dún Laoghaire TD said the Government’s housing policy was in “absolute rag order”.