The party also plan to announce their nominated presidential candidate today.
Sinn Féin has confirmed that they plan to table a motion of no confidence in Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy this term. This follows weeks of unrest surrounding the housing crisis, fuelled by the fact that homelessness figures are growing month on month.
Just last week, reports showed that 9,891 people are currently living in emergency accommodation in Ireland. It has also revealed that child homelessness rose 35% at the end of Housing Murphy’s Eoghan Murphy’s first full year in the post.
Elected representatives of the party from the Oireachtas, Northern Assembly and European Parliament, along with party strategists plan to meet in Cavan on Monday, September 3 to discuss the upcoming budget, the restoration of power-sharing in the North, housing, health and also Brexit.
It is at this meeting that the party will table a motion of no confidence in the Housing Minister, who has faced accusations of being an out-of-touch “posh boy” in recent weeks.
On their website, Sinn Féin has posted a piece outlining that “if in government”, they would “deliver a housing blueprint for this island that makes boom and bust property cycles, housing waiting lists, homelessness and environmentally-unsound housing, things of the past.”
They also propose an enormous social housing build programme entitled ‘Project 100,000’ which aims to increase the social and affordable housing stock and eradicate huge housing lists by 2030.
Just last week, Murphy claimed that “policies are working”, while also referring to the worsening housing crisis as “a very acute supply problem”.
Murphy mentioned that it was his responsibility to fix the problem and that was what he was primarily focused on at this moment in time.
He said his Department is reliant on local authorities to build social housing, saying that some were in the process of building, some weren’t and others were facing significant delays.
Monday’s meeting will also see Sinn Féin announce their nominated presidential candidate for the October election.
Sinn Féin’s David Cullinane rejected claims that the party’s plan to nominate a candidate just six weeks prior to the expected election date was in a bid to avoid prolonged media scrutiny of their candidate.
It’s been speculated that Liadh Ní Riada may be announced as the party’s chosen candidate, something she has already vehemently denied.
Solicitor John Finucane’s name has also been mentioned as of late, as well as entrepreneur Peter Casey.
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