Sinn Féin has the solutions to solve Monaghan housing concerns – Matt Carthy
The three key measures required to solve the housing crisis are the introduction of a rent freeze, the reduction of rents and a the delivery of the largest public house building programme in the history of the state. This is according to Sinn Féin general election candidate, Matt Carthy, who was speaking this week.
Carthy promised that in government, Sinn Féin “will deliver the largest public housing building programme in the history of the State” helping to take people off the local council’s housing list and ensuring that Monaghan people will be able to find the security that only comes with owning your own home.
He said: “The much-vaunted ‘Rebuilding Ireland’, launched in 2016, and supported by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil TDs, promised to fix our broken housing system, but instead they have made things worse, with rents and levels of homelessness getting higher.
“The results of this are to be seen in Monaghan where there are upwards of 1300 people languishing on the council’s housing lists, waiting for years for a home. The crisis in escalating rents and mortgages means that if Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael are returned to power most young Monaghan people will never be in a position to buy their own home.
“For the last 30 years, Fianna Fáil and then Fine Gael have followed the same set of catastrophic housing policies. They have under invested in public housing and over-relied on the private sector to meet social and affordable housing need, while they failed to protect renters from the greed of the market.
“They saddled working people with unsustainable levels of debt, enticing vulture funds into the market while ignoring the needs of workers and families.
“Sinn Féin in government will deliver 100,000 public homes on public land; including 60,000 social homes, 30,000 affordable purchase homes and 10,000 affordable rental homes.
“A Sinn Féin Minister for Housing would also take emergency action to address the rental crisis by reducing rents by up to €1,500 a year with a refundable tax credit, alongside introducing a three year freeze on all existing and new rents.
“Our housing policies are fully costed and can be delivered without additional government borrowing, or any additional taxes on ordinary workers who will also be given a break by a Sinn Féin government”.
ENDS
