Carlow Councillor lashes out as housing minister set to visit Carlow

Local elections are heating up, and Fianna Fáil housing minister Darragh O'Brien is set to visit Carlow and welcome housing developments across the county.

One Carlow Councillor, People Before Porfit's, Cllr Adrienne Wallace has a few choice words about the visit from the minister.

Cllr Wallace said “I think it is particularly galling for the thousands on the housing list in Carlow to be expected to applaud Minister O’Brien while they languish in homelessness, sub-standard homes with high rents or in overcrowded accommodation. Nationally, the number of people accessing emergency accommodation reached another record high last month. It is also the highest number of children who have been recorded as being in emergency accommodation since records began. Locally, over 50 people are homeless and more are facing evictions after local Fianna Fáil TDs voted to lift the eviction ban, now they want people in Carlow to welcome those orchestrating the housing crisis.”

She added “Minister O’Brein wants to continue the failed market-driven policies. The state agreed to thousands of expensive long-term social housing leases, the deals come with a price tag of more than €3.24 billion. However, People Before Profit accept that it is now time to interfere with the market, we would build an additional 7,000 homes at a cost of €2.22 billion instead of handing billions over to private landlords to profit from the housing crisis.”

Cllr Wallace concluded “Documents recently released under freedom of information show that officials for the Minister for Finance have warned that the State demonstrated a “critical need” for long-term institutional investment. Government departments are at odds with each other and the government clearly does not have a concise strategy to deal with this crisis. PBP is calling for a State Construction company to take the lead and start building much-needed forever homes.”