Speaking today about the Government’s Housing Plan, Cllr Fitzpatrick said “The massive housing crisis in Dublin is a monument to Fine Gael and Labour’s failure to serve Dublin and manage this housing crisis over the last ten years.  This ‘plan’ is nothing more than another empty pre-election promise from this Government. It contains references to funding required and yet no reference to where that funding will come from.  It is insulting to the thousands of people on the social housing list today and it is a gross abuse of ministerial office to try to save Labour and Fine Gael political embarrassment at the polls in Dublin on Friday”.

Cllr Fitzpatrick said “The truth is that this ‘strategy’ as announced yesterday by the Minister of State for Housing, Jan O’Sullivan, is destined to fail.  It will not solve the problem of homelessness in Dublin; it will not even come near to addressing the problem.  Cllr Fitzpatrick continued “Currently there are 30,000 people on the social housing list in Dublin, the Government housing plan pledges to provide 2,700 units specifically for homeless people by the end of 2016. This ‘plan’ shows that the Government either do not understand the problem or are ignoring it”. Cllr Fitzpatrick continued “There is no serious commitment from the Government to solve the problem. The core issue is that there is no reference to new funding in the housing plan and there is no commitment to address the basic problem which is one of supply which way outstrips demand”.

“In real terms this Government has delivered funding for 37 new housing units over the next three years, they have changed the system to take those who have received short-term rent allowance off the social housing list and plan to slash the budget for council housing in 2015 and 2016” said Fitzpatrick.  “Meanwhile six people each day are becoming homeless.  It is clear from this Government’s ‘Housing Plan’ that they do not, in fact, have a housing strategy they have a short-term election strategy to get them over the line on Friday”.