I commend the residents, especially those here today, and all those who have to live in these unfit conditions. All of a sudden, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour has decided that there is an increase in their rent. If it is unfit, there should be no increase. In fact, there should be no rent for the conditions some of these tenants are living in, pure and simple. The council has been informed for many years of the unfit conditions, and that includes, for a long time, sewage coming up through the baths in some of the flat complexes. That is how bad it is and how bad has been, yet we have a Government that is willing to put on hold any chance of regeneration in Oliver Bond Street. I have sat on the Dolphin House regeneration board for many years. In that instance, they keep telling lies, coming up with new dates and then turning them upside down, and it does not happen. I have documents and questions here where we have been continuously told that phase 1B of Dolphin House will proceed. It was supposed to be finished by the end of this year; it is now 2029. Let us look at how disgraceful the Government amendment is. Most people do not normally look at it because they know it is a negative. The Government parties are crowing and saying how great they are at delivering social housing regeneration. They picked out Dolphin House and said that they completed it in 2018. They did not complete phase 1 in 2018; they are still working on it. That is how badly the work was done. It is not complete. There is still no movement on phase 1B. We are still waiting on it. Where are phases 2, 3, or 4? Nobody knows. The last we heard was 2035. That is supposed to have started 20 years ago. All of the deadlines set by the council or the Government have never been met because they do not involve them living in it, pure and simple.
Sentiment score: -0.04
They would not live in the conditions they are asking residents in my constituency to live in, whether it is Oliver Bond House, Emmet Buildings or Basin Street. There are quite a lot more, including Bernard Curtis House, Dolphin House and Seagull House. In some places, they have pulled them down. People might remember the Emmet estate, or the old St. Michael's Estate. How long has that been waiting for the building? They are only on-site, yet the buildings were pulled down many years ago. That is scandalous. It is strange that the Labour Party even bothered trying to amend our motion because it tried to take out the criticism we had of the party increasing the rent. Shame on it for that.
Sentiment score: -0.13
It should acknowledge that it has increased the rent in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. It should also acknowledge the increase in rent is for substandard accommodation, pure and simple. These flats are substandard and people know it. They are not fit, in some cases, for human habitation. I have had many cases over the years where residents have come to me about the level of mould and damp, with water running down their walls, not the windows but their walls, and into sockets, making it dangerous to live in. The floor gets saturated and the furniture they have starts to warp and attract mould and damp. The Minister of State would not expect to live in that, yet the State expects people to live in those conditions. It needs to end now. The Government needs to reverse the decision taken on Oliver Bond House and not just that. It needs to accelerate all of the other ones. The communities have spent time and effort and have had consultation after consultation, yet they are getting knocked back. Communities will not continue to engage in those consultations. Is that what the Minister of State wants? Does he want to break the communities and separate them around the city, as has happened in the past, because of the delays? Blocks are detenanted, people are moved out of the community and they are no longer part of it. They are elsewhere. Is that the intention? Then, all of a sudden, the Government has a greenfield site it can build public-private apartments on. That is the wrong approach. These communities are proud. They are the best people in the world, yet we have allowed them to continue to live in unfit accommodation with all of the other pressures these communities are under. We all know about the antisocial and criminal behaviour of people selling drugs in many of these complexes. That needs to end, and it needs to end now.
Sentiment score: -0.06
Dolphin House is not finished.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The Minister is saying it but it is not finished
Sentiment score: 0.00
We cannot let the Minister lie in the House
Sentiment score: 0.00
The Minister should not be telling porkies.
Sentiment score: 0.00