I listened to the Minister of State's contribution earlier. My only hope is that he did not write it himself because I cannot describe it as anything other than obnoxious. It was a gaslighting of communities, some of which I am sure are in the Gallery this evening and are living in conditions nothing short of inhumane. The response from Government was "carry on" because things are good and it will get there in due course. However, due course has health implications for the people living in those flat complexes. There are respiratory issues and mould on the walls. When I canvas any of the inner-city flat complexes I will inevitably be brought in by a person to see the mould on the walls, to see hinges on doors that do not actually close, and to see windows only barely contained within the structure. Only 17% of flat complexes in this city have experienced any form of upgrade. The people living in them have been given a double insult. I will get to the insult in a second, but in addition to what this motion is asking for, all anybody in the flat complexes or those who have the pleasure of representing them are asking for is that this Government lives up to its own commitments. In October 2024, to great fanfare, Simon Harris and lots of other Ministers stood in the GPO and announced a capital-only plan called the Big Move 2. It committed to a "total regeneration of all existing social housing in the city centre [and this is the real kicker] within three to five years". I do not believe a single flat complex has been renovated in that time, but the Minister of State's speech tells us the State will get to it in due course. The Government is going against its own commitments made in the GPO under the heading "Ten Big Moves". I can imagine a person in one of the flat complexes locally, like Greek Street, Henrietta Street, Ballybough House or Dunne Street would have looked at that and said it was great and that maybe within in three to five years they would have habitable conditions in which they could raise their children. What did they get within 12 months of the Government's Big Move? They got rent increases. I cannot imagine anything more cruel than a report commissioned by the State that commits to addressing the absence of any sort of humane conditions in flat complexes and rather than the State doing the job it committed to do, which was to allocate the funding promised, it turned around and raised the rents of people living in conditions not one of us in this Chamber would live in now. I grew up in Mountain View Court. I spent the first seven years of my life there. I will not romanticise it as there absolutely were issues, but I still see people on the street who say they remember me from the flats. A sense of solidarity, commitment and community exists there, but it exists in the absence of State intervention and of a State willing to say that, as these people's landlord - the overarching truth is that this State is quite literally the landlord - it is going to allow people to live in conditions that are nothing short of the tenement conditions of old. Within these complexes you will find people who keep their flats immaculately. They clean their flats every single day. I am sorry to the Minister of State, but I am talking to him. I am talking to him through the Chair, admittedly, but I would appreciate it if he-----

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-----listened to me about the cry I am getting from flat complexes the length and breadth of this city, which is that the State should just do its job. With Dublin City Council or any other local authority, it is the State that is the overarching landlord of conditions that were found by European courts to be inhumane. The Minister of State cannot tell me we are a rich country when we are a slum landlord. The calls in this motion are minuscule but the demand from the people living in these flat complexes the length and breadth of the city, who we meet every single day, who are hurting and who have that hurt compounded by increased rents, is simply for the State to do its job, live up to its commitment and stop asking people to live in conditions none of us in this Chamber would live in.

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