Housing minister Darragh O’Brien faces no-confidence motion

A motion of no confidence is being tabled against minister for housing Darragh O’Brien.

The Government usually tables a counter motion calling in response to a no-confidence vote.

The People Before Profit-Solidarity motion will note that “up to 20,000 people” demonstrated on the streets of Dublin on November 26 as part of a Raise the Roof rally demanding an end to homelessness and calling for more social and affordable homes.

It will also say that the coalition Government’s “catastrophic failure” on housing is being exploited to whip up racist and anti-refugee sentiment.

The motion will say that the Dail “has no confidence in the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, that his housing policies are creating a catastrophic failure that is tearing apart the social fabric of Irish society, and calls for the minister to be removed from office”.

If passed, Mr O’Brien would not be removed from office automatically, but it would place pressure on the Government to replace him as minister if the majority of TDs vote no confidence in him.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin, who is due to swap roles with Tanaiste Leo Varadkar on December 17, has said Mr O’Brien will remain as housing minister after an upcoming reshuffle.

Speaking to the PA news agency, People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Paul Murphy said the vote against Mr O’Brien was a vote against the Government’s current housing policy.

“It isn’t a personal question for us,” he said of the Fianna Fail minister.

“It’s not saying that he is any personally worse than those who went before him … it’s the housing policy that he is absolutely associated with.

“So, this is about no confidence in the minister for housing, but also no confidence in the entire thrust of their housing policy and the need for that to change.”

He added that the housing crisis is getting worse in “lots of different ways”.

“The housing crisis is also spilling into education and in healthcare, with hospitals not able to get nurses at school, not able to get teachers.

“All the indications are it’s getting worse and worse, and will continue to do so over the winter.

“The latest figures we’ve seen is that construction commencements are slowing down (for) three months in a row now. So, they were hoping that the private sector was going to deliver housing and that would trickle down.

“But now that cost has gone up and profits may be cut to some degree, now the private sector is saying, ‘well, we’re not going to build any more’ and so it really underlines this reliance on private market and profit incentive to deliver, it isn’t working.”

The vote comes after four consecutive months of record homelessness figures and spiralling housing costs.

Research from the ESRI think-tank shows that average private rents rose from 589 to 1,084 euro per month between 2012 and 2021, with recent figures from the banking lobby BPFI showing similar.

The Irish Government has warned that it faces a challenging period ahead to tackle the severe shortage of housing, exacerbated by a slowdown in construction during the pandemic and the surge in asylum seekers this year.

The Dail rises for the Christmas period on Thursday and is not due to return until Wednesday January 18.