Richard Boyd Barrett Accuses Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael of Lies on Housing, Health
Richard Boyd Barrett accused Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael of winning the election on a "pack of lies" about housing, the health service, disability care and the issue of Palestine. He said the parties deliberately misled the public and blamed profit-driven interests for preventing solutions to the housing crisis.
Richard Boyd Barrett opened by saying the election was won on a pack of lies and that officials had misled the public about the reasons for the housing crisis. He specifically alleged figures were overstated, citing a claim of 40,000 houses built when there were actually 30,000, and dismissed some government explanations as deliberate misleading rather than honest failures.
He argued the long-running failure to solve housing is due to government deference to those making money from housing - investment funds, vulture funds, landlords, property speculators and developers. He listed consequences including the refusal to build social housing, the absence of bans on no-fault evictions, a lack of genuinely affordable housing, no rent controls and families forced into emergency accommodation.
On health, he said ministers portrayed recruitment as merely difficult whereas, he argued, the government was not properly trying to recruit because of undisclosed "pay and numbers" decisions. He noted health workers have balloted overwhelmingly for industrial action and that section 39 workers who provide care to disabled people are paid on inferior terms and have been forced to fight for pay parity and proper conditions.
He criticised the insertion of an IHRA definition into the programme for government, saying it was effectively designed to censor anyone who describes the Israeli state project as an apartheid racist state. He stated his view that the Israeli state project is a racist apartheid project and said he was not an anti-Semite.
Election claims and misleading
Richard Boyd Barrett opened by saying the election was won on a pack of lies and that officials had misled the public about the reasons for the housing crisis. He specifically alleged figures were overstated, citing a claim of 40,000 houses built when there were actually 30,000, and dismissed some government explanations as deliberate misleading rather than honest failures.
Housing crisis and vested interests
He argued the long-running failure to solve housing is due to government deference to those making money from housing - investment funds, vulture funds, landlords, property speculators and developers. He listed consequences including the refusal to build social housing, the absence of bans on no-fault evictions, a lack of genuinely affordable housing, no rent controls and families forced into emergency accommodation.
Health service, recruitment and section 39 workers
On health, he said ministers portrayed recruitment as merely difficult whereas, he argued, the government was not properly trying to recruit because of undisclosed "pay and numbers" decisions. He noted health workers have balloted overwhelmingly for industrial action and that section 39 workers who provide care to disabled people are paid on inferior terms and have been forced to fight for pay parity and proper conditions.
IHRA definition and Palestine remarks
He criticised the insertion of an IHRA definition into the programme for government, saying it was effectively designed to censor anyone who describes the Israeli state project as an apartheid racist state. He stated his view that the Israeli state project is a racist apartheid project and said he was not an anti-Semite.
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Transcript
Lies, lies, lies. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael won the election based on a pack of lies about some of the most serious issues facing the country. Whether it's housing, the crisis in the health service, looking after the disabled and those who need care, and the issue of Palestine. I know what you're going to say. We'll call it misleading then. So, you misled, deliberately, the public about the reasons for the housing crisis. Not just about the numbers, the targets, which you misled the public, saying there were 40,000 built when there was actually 30,000 built. But you're also misleading the public as the reason why, after more than a decade, you haven't solved the housing crisis. And the reason is because you're dancing to the tune of people who are making money from it. That's why you won't build a social housing. That's why you won't ban no-fault evictions. That's why you won't build affordable housing that is actually affordable. That's why you won't impose rent controls. That's why families and children are living in squalor, in emergency accommodation, because somebody is making money out of it. Investment funds, vulture funds, landlords and property speculators and developers, and you won't do anything about them. The crisis in the health service. You said, we're trying to recruit people, it's just difficult to recruit people. But we've been campaigning for the last six months, prompted by health workers, who explained to us last summer, and we've raised it with you repeatedly, that you aren't trying to recruit people. It's not that it's difficult, you're not trying to do it, because of this thing called pay and numbers, which you never announced publicly, and you've only been rumbled by health workers, who are now balloting every single grade of health worker, has now balloted overwhelmingly for industrial action, because you have been misleading the public. Not lying, sorry, misleading the public about your failure to recruit people into the health services. Similarly, on section 39 workers, oh, it's difficult to recruit people. No, it's difficult, because a whole number of people who look after the disabled, who provide care for them, are paid on lesser paying conditions than others who are employed directly by the health service. Now, they've been forced to battle for industrial action, because you won't give the pay parity and proper conditions of employment. Lastly, the IHRA definition as Deputy Murphy, where did that come from? That wasn't mentioned. You said during the election, oh, we're for Palestine, we're going to pass the Occupied Territories Bill, we care about the genocide. But no, no, no, you insert a definition into the program for government that effectively is designed to censor anybody who says the Israeli state project is an apartheid racist state. The Israeli state project is a racist apartheid project, I'm not an anti-Semite. Deputy Michael Miner.