Housing crisis scapegoating
Deputy Boyd Barrett accuses the Taoiseach of scapegoating asylum seekers and people exiting direct provision for the housing crisis. Despite repeated interventions from the Chair and the Minister, he insists the real causes are Government policy, the eviction ban ending, and failure to deliver social and affordable housing.
One of the oldest tricks in the book of a cynical government under pressure is the tactic of divide and conquer, and scapegoating innocent people for that government's own failing. That is what we heard from the Taoiseach, Simon Harris, over the weekend, when he essentially hung a target on the backs of asylum seekers, people exiting direct provision and immigrants generally by suggesting-----
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-----that they were responsible for the housing crisis.
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The Deputy should withdraw that. That is appalling.
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He has echoed the scapegoating.
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No. The Taoiseach used language that was dangerous.
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The Taoiseach used dangerous language.
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The Taoiseach used dangerous and dishonest language, suggesting things that are simply not true about asylum seekers and people exiting direct provision, when it is the Government which has exacerbated the homelessness crisis by lifting the no-fault eviction ban and by failing to address the deficit in social and affordable housing. Why does the Minister not ask the Taoiseach to stop scapegoating asylum seekers and immigrants and have, as we have been seeking for months, the discussion that the Government promised we would have on the Housing Commission report, which, of course, laid the blame for the housing crisis where it belongs, namely on the shoulders of this Government?