Thomas Gould: Amendment Insults Evicted Families
Thomas Gould challenges the Minister over an amendment he says insults more than 7,000 families who received eviction notices earlier this year. He contrasts those families' fear and uncertainty with tax breaks and large CEO bonuses announced over the weekend, and calls for policies that put people before investment funds.
Thomas Gould highlights notices to quit affecting thousands of households in late last year and the first three months of this year. He reads first-hand accounts from a mother searching daily for housing, a pensioner who worked all his life now facing eviction, and a man working two jobs who still cannot keep a roof above his family.
Gould criticises the Minister for defending an amendment and applauding tax breaks for developers and speculators. He points to reports of CEOs taking 41 million in bonuses as emblematic of a system that rewards investors while ordinary people lose homes.
Gould frames the debate as a choice about priorities: whether to protect families or to preserve a gravy train for developers and investment funds. He finishes by stating that if Sinn Féin were in government they would stop this homelessness and put families first, arguing for larger-scale intervention to prevent eviction and housing insecurity.
The clip underscores the human cost of housing policy and sets out Sinn Féin's alternative approach, presenting the issue as central to government responsibility and fairness in housing, taxation and regulation of property owners and funds.
Eviction figures and personal testimonies
Thomas Gould highlights notices to quit affecting thousands of households in late last year and the first three months of this year. He reads first-hand accounts from a mother searching daily for housing, a pensioner who worked all his life now facing eviction, and a man working two jobs who still cannot keep a roof above his family.
Critique of government policy and developer benefits
Gould criticises the Minister for defending an amendment and applauding tax breaks for developers and speculators. He points to reports of CEOs taking 41 million in bonuses as emblematic of a system that rewards investors while ordinary people lose homes.
People before investment funds
Gould frames the debate as a choice about priorities: whether to protect families or to preserve a gravy train for developers and investment funds. He finishes by stating that if Sinn Féin were in government they would stop this homelessness and put families first, arguing for larger-scale intervention to prevent eviction and housing insecurity.
Consequences and political stakes
The clip underscores the human cost of housing policy and sets out Sinn Féin's alternative approach, presenting the issue as central to government responsibility and fairness in housing, taxation and regulation of property owners and funds.
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Transcript
Minister, your amendment is an actual insult to every person, to those over 7,000 families who got notices to quit in the first three months of the year, and the thousands of families who got notices to quit at the end of last year. People facing eviction, people not knowing where they're going to be in four or five or six or seven or eight months. People saying where are they going to live, where are their children going to live, where are their children going to go to school, where are their children going to play. You use the amendment. You say about how it wasn't as bad, the figures in March weren't as bad, and you pat yourself in the back in relation to tax breaks for developers and for speculators that had apartments that already were profitable. Can you imagine how these families feel? Where's the justice, where's the fearless minister? I can imagine how they feel when they read over the weekend that CEOs of some of these developer companies earn and take bonuses of 41 million. Can you imagine if you're one of those 7,000 families and you see the CEOs getting 41 million, where's the fearless then? A mother contacted me and this is her own words, every day I search for somewhere for us to live and every night I lie awake and what will happen to my little boy if I cannot find a home in time. How do you think she feels when she heard about 41 million? And I had a pensioner who's worked all his life and now he's facing eviction. How can we live in a country where you can work all your life and when you become the pension age you're made homeless? How can that be right? I have another man who contacted me, two jobs he's working, two jobs and he can't keep a roof over his head and doesn't know where he's going to go when the eviction notice is up. There might be a gravy train for the developers, there might be a gravy train for the speculators and the investment funds, where's the gravy train for ordinary people? They don't even want it, they're just looking for a roof over their head. Minister, we want to put people first, if Sinn Féin were in government we would stop this homelessness, we would stop this craziness, we would get bigger, we would put families and people before investment funds, simple as that.