Latest: 'Time for Eoghan Murphy to go' - Mary Lou McDonald
Sinn Féin are to table a motion of no confidence in Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy.
Hitting out at the Government for failing to address the housing and homeless crisis, Sinn Féin president Mary-Lou McDonald has also challenged Fianna Fáil to back the motion.
Speaking at the party's think-in in Cavan this morning, Ms McDonald said: "The policy of this government is failing the homeless, failing those renting and those who strive to own a home.
We have a Minister who is failing and out of touch.
"This is a scandal. It is time to call a halt.
"It is time for Eoghan Murphy to go."
She told those attending the two-day event that there is now an entire generation of workers who will never afford to own a home.
Ms McDonald said the 10,000 people currently homeless is the equivalent of the entire population of Longford town, and claimed the situation is getting worse.
.@MaryLouMcDonald said Sinn Féin will table a motion of no confidence on Housing Minister Murphy in the coming weeks #LeChéile pic.twitter.com/KT0iaZR0VF
— Sinn Féin (@sinnfeinireland) September 3, 2018
"We will table a motion of no confidence in Minster Murphy in the coming weeks. It will be decision time. It will be decision time for the government and for Fianna Fáil.
"Does the government and Fianna Fáil stand over the Minister and his appalling record or do they stand with us and say it’s time to go? Do they stand with the people or not?" she asked.
Ms McDonald added:
A new Ireland is not worthy of the name if it is a place of inequality, of homelessness and hardship. It must be a place that we all call home.
Earlier: Fianna Fáil will not support motion of no-confidence in Housing Minister
Fianna Fáil has confirmed they will not support a motion of no confidence in Eoghan Murphy.
Party leader Micheál Martin joined Sean O'Rourke on RTÉ Radio 1 to discuss the ongoing housing crisis in Ireland.
"There simply has to be more construction and again there will have to be additional funding for social housing but more critically for affordable housing and all of the government targets so far, their own initiatives that they took, they have failed to reach their own targets," he said.
"Rapid bill, for example, we were meant to have 1800 units built by the end of this year, only 208.
"In terms of the repair and lease scheme, zero achievement in relation to that.
"So we do have to, in terms of affordable housing, working people who are above the income threshold to get local authority housing cannot afford to buy houses in the cities, in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick or anywhere and we need to create an affordable housing scheme which we had back in 2011 which was axed a number of years ago.
It's a crisis.
Mr Martin said the Housing Minister needs to acknowledge that the government's policies are not working.
"He needs to stop saying that their policies are working, he needs to acknowledge they are not working and that we need a far greater degree of urgency and intervention to get houses built and to at a very basic level get rid of the bureaucracy that is slowing up the building of local authority houses," he said.
He confirmed his party will not support a motion of no-confidence in Minister Murphy.
"Motions of no confidence will not build a single house," he said.
Earlier: Sinn Féin plan motion of no-confidence in Housing Minister
Sinn Féin has confirmed they will table a motion of no-confidence in Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy.
Almost 10,000 people are now homeless which the party says is unacceptable.
The party is holding its annual conference in Cavan today and tomorrow.
The Budget, restoration of power-sharing in the North and Brexit are also on the agenda.
Deputy David Cullinane says they will be tabling the no-confidence motion in Eoghan Murphy in the coming weeks.
"The bottom line is that this minister and this government have failed on housing," he said.
"They have failed people on rising rents; they have failed people who want to own their own home, there are no affordable homes; and they have failed people who are on long social housing waiting lists.
"Most of all they've failed those families and those children who are stuck in emergency accommodation.
It's not right. It's not the type of society that we in Sinn Féin want. It's not the type of society that the vast majority of people want.
Earlier: Brexit, Budget and Irish unity on agenda for Sinn Féin think-in
Brexit, the economy and Irish unity are on the agenda for Sinn Féin over the next 48 hours.
The party is in Cavan holding its annual 'think-in'.
Leader Mary Lou McDonald will address delegates later this morning as its end-of-summer planning meeting gets underway.
Elected Sinn Féin representatives are set to debate and plan their vision of a new Ireland over the next two days at the party's annual think-in.
They will be looking at Brexit and the devolved Government, and how both are affecting the human rights of people living in the North.
Irish unity in the context of a new Ireland remains on their agenda.
Also up for discussion is the upcoming Budget with the party proposing an 'alternative budget' to ease the health and housing crisis.
Sinn Féin has confirmed it's going to table a motion of no confidence in the Housing Minister, Eoghan Murphy, in the coming weeks.
The party previously postponed plans to proceed with a motion of no confidence in the Minister.
Meanwhile, the party has confirmed it will not be announcing a presidential hopeful until later this month.
