Government loses on vote to declare housing a national emergency

The Government has today lost a vote on the housing crisis, after a cross-party motion to declare a national housing emergency passed through the house.

The motion, tabled by Solidarity-People Before Profit, was debated yesterday and was signed by TDs from Sinn Féin, Social Democrats, Labour, the Green Party, Independents4Change and others.

None of the independent TDs outside the government, with the exception of Michael Lowry, backed the bid to vote down the legislation.

In this afternoon's vote the motion was supported by 83 votes, with one TD abstaining and 43 voting against it.

Cross party #RaiseTheRoof motion decisively passed by the Dáil. This is a bruising defeat for @FineGael & a resounding rejection of @RebuildingIRL Time for increased investment in public housing & a constitutional right to housing pic.twitter.com/bsZqtlboj4

— Eoin Ó Broin (@EOBroin) October 4, 2018

The vote comes a day after the raise the roof protest took place in Dublin, which saw thousands of people march through Dublin to protest homelessness and housing issues.

Speaking at Leader's Questions today, Sinn Fein finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty said: “The Tánaiste must now surely accept the reality that no matter how many times he or members of his Government say it, their housing policies are simply not working. It is time to say enough is enough.”

Elsewhere, Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy took to Twitter to confirm that the idea of renting a cruise ship is not suitable for homeless families. He said that "more appropriate" solutions are being pursued by the Dublin Region Homeless Executive.

Latest figures from the Department of Housing show that there were 9,891 people accessing emergency accommodation. The figures consisted of 6,024 adults and 3,867 children.