Sinn Féin Leader on Dublin City Council and European election candidate for Dublin, Daithí Doolan, has said Fianna Fáil candidate Barry Andrews must explain how he can stand over his party’s abject failure on housing.

Cllr comments follow a report by the Housing Commission that calls for a ‘radical strategic reset’ of government’s housing policy and estimates an underlying housing deficit in Ireland of up to 256,000 homes.

The report criticises ‘ineffective decision making and reactive policy making where risk aversion dominates.’

Cllr Doolan said:

“It has been painfully obvious for many years now that the government’s housing policy isn’t working. We have a serious housing crisis in Dublin and across the state.

“This is as a direct result of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s disastrous housing policy. Every day that they remain in government, the worse things are getting for people in Dublin.

“This report was submitted to the Fianna Fáil Housing Minister earlier this month. This is a Minister who is big on announcements but continually fails to live up to his promises.

“Fianna Fáil have been responsible for the Department of Housing for four years now. Before that, they spent many more years propping up Fine Gael in government while they made the housing crisis worse and worse.

“Just yesterday a report by daft.ie revealed the extent of the exorbitant rents being charged in Dublin, with prices reaching €2,671 per month in the south of the county. This is totally unaffordable for ordinary workers and families.

“Yet, to listen to European election candidates for the government parties, you wouldn’t even know there was a housing crisis causing misery across Dublin.

“Fianna Fáil candidate Barry Andrews needs to be clear with people in Dublin – does he defend Fianna Fáil’s disastrous record on housing?

“Does he accept this report by the independent Housing Commission that their own policies are failing? How can he possibly ask people in Dublin whose lives are affected by the housing crisis to vote for more of the same failed government policies?

“Sinn Féin has a plan to get to grips with the housing crisis. Our plan would ensure workers and families in Dublin on ordinary incomes can rent or buy genuinely affordable homes.

“Our plan is to put in place a ban on rent increases for all tenants, put a full month’s rent back into every private renter’s pocket, and a dramatic increase and acceleration in the delivery of social, affordable rental and affordable purchase homes.

“Voting for Sinn Féin on 7th June is the first step in getting this disastrous government out of office. A vote for Sinn Féin is a vote for change.”