PBP-Solidarity calls for €13bn in Apple tax to go towards home building

People Before Profit-Solidarity has called for the €13 billion windfall to the State from the Apple case to fund a State construction company to build tens of thousands of social homes.
At the party’s annual conference in Dublin, the Dún Laoghaire TD Richard Boyd-Barrett said that more than 100,000 families were waiting a decade or more on social housing lists.
In his address to delegates, Mr Boyd-Barrett said young people did not “have a prayer” of getting their own home or even renting.
He said that with a record number of homeless people, the only people benefiting were those that were “profiteering” from rent, including vulture funds.
The alliance has five TDs in the Dáil but expects to increase its representation after the general election.
Mr Boyd-Barrett told delegates not to believe the narrative that the outcome of the general election was a foregone conclusion.
“That does not have to be the way,” he said. “We want to offer a clear alternative. We are fighting for a genuinely left Government that will not do any deal to prop up Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael.
“It requires a political will and principles to say we will not sell our political souls to go into Government with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. We invite others on the left to join us in this project and use our position to build momentum.”
[ Government urged to take emergency measures to address housing crisis at Dublin protestOpens in new window ]
He also accused the Government of being complicit in the occupation of Gaza and invasion of Lebanon by allowing US military flights to transit through Shannon Airport and also allow Israeli unions through Irish airspace.
[ Shannon Airport not being used by US to supply military equipment to Israel – VaradkarOpens in new window ]
He challenged Taoiseach Simon Harris to tell Joe Biden at their meeting in the White House this month that the US President has been “complicit in genocide in Gaza”.
His colleague Paul Murphy also said the eviction ban needed to be brought back. “We need to demand that society be run on the basis that people’s needs are met,” he said. “This means taking action like reinstating the eviction ban.”