Sinn Féin pledge to tackle housing crisis

Sinn Féin pledged today to fight for the right to affordable housing and tackle the crisis it claims is forcing thousands onto the streets.

Launching his party’s Local Government manifesto, Gerry Adams also said he intended to have an elected representative in every single county in Ireland after voting day next weekend.

“Affordable housing should be a constitutional right,” he said. “This Government believes in rewarding developers and controlling its own vested interests.

“But change is possible and we are committed to delivering that change.”

Daithí Doolan, Dublin South-East inner city candidate, said local authorities should fulfil their responsibility to deliver adequate and appropriate housing for the communities they represent.

“We have the land but what’s lacking is the political will,” he said. “It’s been corralled to ensure that bank balances remain high. That is not good enough for the people of Dublin.”

There are 48,000 families – in excess of more than 130,000 people – on housing waiting lists.

The party pledged to tackle the crisis and cut housing lists across the state. They called for local authorities to be allocated more funds to construct adequate social housing and to create a National Housing Strategy.

Mr Adams said republicanism had always had support from all social classes. “The one uniform issue is that people want change. People are worried about the privatisation of waste management, people are worried about the state of the health service.”

Sinn Féin councillor Joe Reilly said a reform of local government was long overdue. “Local government has not been working to its full potential for many years now,” he said.