Sinn Féin pledges ‘largest’ programme of public housing building in State’s history
Mary Lou McDonald flags party’s housing plans as she criticises FG, FF and RTÉ
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald outside Leinster House on Tuesday. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw/The Irish Times
Sinn Féin will seek to deliver the “largest” programme of public housing building in the history of the State if it enters government after the general election, party leader Mary Lou McDonald has said.
Speaking in Clondalkin in Dublin on Wednesday, Ms McDonald said Sinn Féin would next week set out its housing plans, which will be backed up by detailed numbers and send a message that “the housing crisis can be sorted”.
She said there is a sufficient amount of publicly-owned land across the State to accommodate large-scale social housing construction.
“That’s never been the issue. The issue has been one of policy ideology,” she said, adding that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s trust in the market to solve the housing crisis had failed.
“We need State intervention. We need councils to build houses.”
Ms McDonald accused the two largest parties in the Dáil of being in the pockets of developers and landlords and alleged that “they haven’t acted in the public good or the public interest”.
Ms McDonald said Sinn Féin’s housing policy would also include a three-year rent freeze “and measures to deliver real affordability for people to purchase their own homes”.
“Nothing is going to change unless . . . [there is] a change in philosophy and approach. Nothing changes without a change in government,” she said.
Uphill battle
Canvassing with the party’s Dublin Mid-West TDs Eoin Ó Broin and Mark Ward, Ms McDonald conceded it will be a “challenge” to get both men re-elected. Mr Ward faces an uphill battle to retain the seat he won just two months ago in a byelection.
Ms McDonald said Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil had effectively been in Government together for the last four years and that both must stand over their “failed” housing policies. She said the two parties had wanted both the Government and Opposition benches all to themselves.
Ms McDonald also criticised RTÉ for its decision to air a head-to-head debate between Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin while excluding Sinn Féin.
“This was a test for the public service broadcaster and it’s a test they have failed,” Ms McDonald said. “Despite all the noise that this election is simply between Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, that’s not the case whatsoever.”
