Fianna Fáil: Motions of no confidence will not build a single house
The housing minister has accused Sinn Féin of headline-grabbing after it confirmed plans to table a motion of ‘no confidence’ in him.
Sinn Féin president Mary-Lou McDonald said her party will table the motion against Eoghan Murphy when the Dáil returns.
Hitting out at the Government for failing to address the housing and homeless crisis, she challenged Fianna Fáil who said they would not be supporting the motion.
Shame on Fianna Fáil to sit on the sidelines while children and their mothers are forced to sleep in Garda stations,” she said.
At the party’s think-in in Cavan, Ms McDonald said: “The policy of this government is failing the homeless, failing those renting and those who strive to own a home.
“We have a minister who is failing and out of touch.
“This is a scandal. It is time to call a halt. It is time for Eoghan Murphy to go.”
Reacting, Mr Murphy said: “Sinn Féin has floated the notion of a motion of ‘no confidence’ in me on a number of occasions. They do it to get attention for themselves and to get headlines.
He took aim at Sinn Féin for having no housing plan of its own.
Ms McDonald told those attending the two-day event there is now an entire generation of workers who will never afford to own a home.
She said the number of homeless is the equivalent of the entire population of Longford town and claimed the situation is getting worse.
“We will table a motion of ‘no confidence’ in Minster Murphy in the coming weeks. It will be decision time. It will be decision time for the Government and for Fianna Fáil. Does the Government and Fianna Fáil stand over the minister and his appalling record or do they stand with us and say it’s time to go? Do they stand with the people or not?” she asked.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said his party would not support any Sinn Féin motion of ‘no confidence’ in Mr Murphy.
While Mr Martin said the provision of social and affordable housing would be a key issue in pre-Budget negotiations, he did not believe a change of minister would solve the crisis.
On Mr Martin said: “Motions of no confidence will not build a single house.”
However, he said Mr Murphy needs to acknowledge his politics are not working.
We need a far greater degree of urgency and intervention to get houses built and to at a very basic level get rid of the bureaucracy that is slowing up the building of local authority houses.
“There simply has to be more construction and again there will have to be additional funding for social housing but more critically for affordable housing and all of the government targets so far, their own initiatives that they took, they have failed to reach their own targets. Rapid-built, for example, we were meant to have 1,800 units by the end of this year, only 208. In terms of the repair and lease scheme, zero achievements in relation to that.”
The latest homeless figures show the number of people living in emergency accommodation increased in July to 9,891.
While the number of adults living in hotels, B&Bs and hubs decreased marginally, the number of children rose by 43, to 3,867, between June and July.
