Mary Lou McDonald: Government Has Lost Public Confidence

Taoiseach, you may have survived the confidence motion yesterday but please be under no illusion. You have lost the confidence of the Irish people because of your arrogance, because you don't understand their lives, because you refuse to listen. Yesterday even as one of your own ministers walked away you still wouldn't listen. Indeed we got hours of back-slapping and self-congratulation. You know Taoiseach that self-praise is no praise. You are a government that makes things harder for people. Increased school transport fees, exam fees back for the leaving and junior certificate and eye-watering rents for renters. Taoiseach, why have Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors hiked up rents for Dublin City Council tenants? Some people have seen their rents double. These are families stretched to the limit. They're workers, they're carers, they're pensioners, they're hit hard by the cost of fuel, of gas, of electricity, of food. But Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors decide to squeeze them even more. Now you might not know this Taoiseach, but us Dubs are very, very house proud. And none more so than from my home neighbourhood of Cabra and indeed from the inner-city communities that I'm proud to represent and especially people who live in complexes of flats. These are the finest of people Taoiseach. They go out to work every day, they look after their children and their neighbours' children, they hold their communities together and they do everything to keep the show on the road. Many of them are out the door to work from 5.30 in the morning. And they're very, very resilient people too because their communities have faced real, real hardship. And government after government, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have left them behind. They pay their rent but they're left to live in conditions that frankly you would not believe exist in the year 2026. Damp, mould, broken windows, broken doors, crumbling walls, in fact entire blocks of flats in this city riddled with dampness. And if you went to places like Sheriff Street, Seville Place, if you went into Ballybock or East Wall or the flat complexes like Clarion Quay, Chancery House, Island Quay, Longbow Quay, you would find that out for yourself Taoiseach. Families cry out for very basic and long overdue maintenance but they now believe they might be fighting a losing battle because you don't listen. People are fobbed off again and again and this has been going on for decades. Dublin City Council is not meeting its responsibilities, that is a fact. And central government is not funding Dublin City Council to provide a decent acceptable standard of housing and that is a fact too. But to add insult to injury, along come your councillors to hit people with rent hikes. Now that takes brass neck, arrogance and disrespect but I want you to know people aren't taking this lying down. You see it's not just the hauliers and the farmers standing up, these families and communities are standing up too and they are demanding that these rent hikes be scrapped. They're demanding maintenance for their homes, they are demanding respect Taoiseach. Taoiseach why do you treat decent people in this way? Taoiseach to respond. I'm afraid I welcome everybody in the gallery but there are rules to be complied with. If you continue to interrupt I'll have to ask the gallery to be cleared. I'm sorry Taoiseach. Well first of all Deputy, the government won the confidence vote in Dalyardin yesterday by a substantial 14 vote majority. That is the reality despite your description of what transpired yesterday. And the truth is that I was extremely disturbed that you have not yet, as the main opposition leader here in this house, had the courage of your convictions or the decency to separate what is right from what is wrong. And yesterday one of your deputies could not condemn threats or intimidation against Dungardish Economy. Deputy Curran was asked on the program last night a straight question. Do you condemn, let me be clear, do you condemn the threats and the intimidation of Gardaí and the deputy said I do not condemn the protesters. And what happened, and I fully respect the right of people to protest, even the people in the gallery in terms of what Dublin City Council situation in terms of rent. People are entitled to protest. People are, in my view, you seem incapable of saying that it's wrong to boycott or only oil or to blockade or only oil refinery. You haven't, you can't say that's wrong, even though it would have led to a scarcity of oil supply and increased fuel prices. You cannot say that it's wrong to blockade ports, even though it would destroy our economy. You can't say it's wrong to intimidate bus drivers. You haven't the courage. You're weak as a political party. Absolutely. You couldn't do it. You tried to jump on board. And that's the sad, and look I didn't interrupt you deputy, I would appreciate now, I have a few things to say. I fully respect the rights of people to protest. Exactly. I fully respect the right of people to protest. But surely it is possible in this house that we can get agreement on basic rights and wrongs in terms of what should and shouldn't happen. And that is something you have not been prepared to do. And I regularly engage with people in terms of protest. Now, I'm not a member of Dublin City Council, okay, and we have a system of local government in this country. And there is a differential rent system. It's a critical piece of the state's system in terms of local government, which is, as you know, it's far better than the private rental sector or anything near it. It subsidizes high housing costs, supports households. I believe Dublin City Council should do far more in terms of regeneration. We have funded local authorities up and down the country in terms of regeneration. And they should do more in terms of refurbishing flat complexes in particular, which I've been in in recent years, and which I accept are not acceptable. But there's a lot of capital money has been allocated to Dublin City Council. And essentially there is a huge issue in terms of housing maintenance. And the City Council has obviously a revised rent structure now. It's a matter for Dublin City Council and the executive and the council itself to explain and to defend that. We don't run the councils. Let's not pretend we don't. I know the by-election is coming and I know what's... I accept that and so on. But we don't, here from Doyle Airden, run councils. And it's disingenuous and dishonest of you to say that, oh, I couldn't care less or nor could I. We have eight councils at Dublin City Council. And out of, you know, that's a very... out of 60. Okay. So, you know, okay, you're in the attack mode. That's what you do. Generally speaking. I condemn all forms of intimidation and anybody who has known me in any part of my life knows that I may lack many things. I do not lack courage. I do not lack courage. And let me tell you this. You've shown us again exactly who you are. I have asked you to address the lived reality of people from Cabra, from Sheriff Street, Seville Place, East Wall. I've named all of the neighborhoods. I've told you the conditions they're living in. They're like something from Strumpet City. I can't... I could not describe to you how bad the living conditions are. Families, women and men, who week after week, month after month, paint over mold, scrub mold off their walls, and who panic because their children have asthma or other medical conditions because they live in conditions that are not acceptable. Do you know it's the norm in the inner city not even to have room to have a kitchen table? That's what you have presided over. You are now trying to gouge these people for more rent. I want you to tell them that those rent hikes will be cancelled as Taoiseach. Deputy, look, Dublin City Council is responsible for housing policy. Governments fund local authorities the length and breadth of the country, and sorry, they fund them very substantially, and funding has increased very significantly to local authorities over the last five to six years. No question about that. And also, the number of social houses we're building, of a very high quality, is the highest since the 1970s. Close to 12,000 social houses delivered last year. The highest number built, direct builds, of eight and a half thousand ever built in our country. So there's a lot of work going on in social housing. I'm not specifically responsible for what transpires in Dublin City Council, and it's a matter for the council. And again, I have to go into the details of what is proposed. I don't have the detail in terms of the specific differential rent scheme that the council is introducing. Deputy Evanna Batrick, I'm sorry, this is leader's questions. Resume your seat, deputy. Resume your seat. You cannot play it to the gallery. I will have the member... Resume your seat. Resume your seat. Resume your seat, deputy, please. If you want me to recess, that's where we will waste further time, Deputy Evanna Batrick.