Today's motion from Sinn Féin is welcome and we support it. It is timely given what has come out today about the Oliver Bond Street flats, which is absolutely disgraceful. I have been in Oliver Bond Street and have worked with colleagues who have done research and community work in those flats. I worked for many years as a community worker in the Dolphin House flats dealing with issues of mould and damp. One of the big motivations for me to get involved in politics was that people should have the basic necessity of a home, a place where they can rest their head and raise their families, and that does not make them sick and ill. We know in flat complexes across this city and in social housing across this country there are tenants living in homes making them and their children sick. It is wrong. It is a breach of this State's obligations to ensure that not just all housing but social housing in particular, for which the Minister is responsible and landlord of, is not damaging people's health. It is, and we have known about it for years. Ultimately it comes back to the failure to treat housing as a human right, particularly for renters. They have a right to live in housing of a decent standard, whether that is social housing or private rental housing. Many people who own their homes are living in mould and damp as well. In Ballymun, in my constituency, I have dealt with many people living with similar situations of mould and damp. I have been dealing with one mother in particular. I visited her home two months ago and saw the mould in the child's bedroom. It is absolutely unacceptable that babies are born into, and children growing up in homes with mould in the walls. I put my finger on the windowsill, and it went into it because of the dampness. The Minister of State knows what that does to a child with impacts on asthma and even development. It is unacceptable and this State cannot accept that children and families are left growing up in substandard social housing. On top of that, they are being asked and forced to pay even higher rent. It is absolutely disgraceful and unfair that they are living in homes that are uninhabitable and being asked and forced to pay higher rents for that. There are alternative ways to raise funding. Councils need to be funded properly, but ultimately the Government has to take responsibility. We are jeopardising the lives of our children and families growing up. People in social housing have an absolute right to a decent standard of home, just like anybody else. This and previous Governments have failed social housing tenants in this country, and it is not okay. My colleagues will be talking about this, particularly in relation to Oliver Bond Street and what is happening there, but also about inner-city flat complexes that have been left derelict. I was involved in a research project recently specifically about Oliver Bond Street and the concept of care. The question that was put over and over again was whether the Irish State cares about people living in social housing. The only conclusion I can draw, and they can draw, is that right now it does not care. However, it should, and it needs to, and we will fight and push until it does and until people have decent homes in this country.

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