Bacik: Housing crisis the ‘civil rights issue of a generation’

LABOUR leader Ivana Bacik said her party wants to transform the Land Development Agency (LDA) into a State construction company to combat the housing crisis.

Addressing the Labour party conference at the Helix Dublin City University, Ms Bacik also said the party wants to reintroduce the no-fault eviction ban as part of new measures to tackle the unprecedented housing shortage, which she described as the ‘civil rights issue of our generation’.

The Dublin Bay South TD said housing is her party’s ‘number one priority’ and that it wants to build one million homes over the next decade.

She also said that the Government has a ‘shameful record’ when it comes to homelessness and the rental crisis. Deputy Bacik noted that more than 4,000 children are currently homeless, and said solutions are needed from political parties.

The Labour leader said that after eight years of a ‘Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael de facto government’, the social contract with the people of the country had been broken.

She told party members: ‘The housing crisis is worse than ever, with over 4,000 children homeless, with record rents and unaffordable homes,’ and with ‘food and energy prices that are breaking the bank every month’.

She went on to say, ‘The chaos in emergency departments means sick people are afraid to go to hospital.’

Ms Bacik said working people have been left behind by the Government, ‘Caught in a triple bind, fighting for creche and school places, autism assessments or therapies for their children, fighting for home help hours or medical appointments for their own parents and all the while, trying to cover the mortgage or the rent, the electricity bill, or the big food shop.’

She added: ‘Far too many young people still living at home with their parents, stuck in arrested development.

‘Or they are stuck in a rental trap, paying off someone else’s mortgage, unable to save for one of their own.’

Ms Bacik also pledged to tackle what she described as ‘the tragedy of Ponzi scheme politics where the Government has made a pyramid scheme for our basic needs’.

Addressing the immigration crisis, she said Labour will always show solidarity with people living in tents on Mount Street in Dublin, Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s war in their country, and people in Gaza.

She said her own family sought refuge in Ireland 80 years ago, and that Labour and other parties must show a united front against far-right views in Ireland.

She said: ‘The far-right is jubilant and on the rise across the country. They seek to target the most vulnerable – and the Government is letting them away with it.’

Ms Bacik also accused the Coalition of having ‘no plan to put in place the support and shelter that is needed for refugees – left out in the cold, while vacant buildings are lying empty’.

The Labour leader also used her keynote annual conference speech to highlight a number of climate action plans, saying she wants to reduce average electricity prices by €700 a year and to make public transport more affordable.

And she said that if Labour enters government, it will establish a new department focused on examining the potential for a united Ireland and exploring exactly what it would involve.

Ms Bacik reiterated her previous call to incoming taoiseach Simon Harris to call a general election now.

‘My challenge to the new temporary taoiseach is this; if he has confidence in this Government, he should call a general election now and let the people decide on the radical change that we need.’

‘Too many are still living at home’