Raise the roof & let’s get results

THE huge turnout for the Raise the Roof protests outside Leinster House took the Government by surprise and that shock was evidently felt by the Housing Minister.

Homelessness has been spiralling out of control for years and Eoghan Murphy finally admitted there is a serious housing crisis.

The Solidarity/people Before Profit motion with cross-party support seeking a declaration of a housing and homelessness emergency also focussed his mind.

The realisation they will soon be facing a mass movement on housing the likes of which has not been seen since the water charge protests has clearly rattled the Government.

After being all but begged to put their ideology to one side and embark on a huge social housing building programme, Minister Murphy admitted the Government needed to do more and to do better.

The reality is they could not have done much less or much worse after almost eight years.

Claims by Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty yesterday that for most of their term in office Fine Gael could not afford to build houses is utter nonsense when they could find billions of euro for the banks and bondholders.

When local authorities in the past could build tens of thousands of council houses when the country was on its knees there can be no excuse when Ireland is deemed one of the wealthiest countries in the world.