Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien will face a motion of no confidence next week, the Irish Mirror has learned.
At the Dáil business committee meeting on Friday morning, People Before Profit said that they would table the motion of no-confidence in the minister ahead of the government reshuffle on Saturday, multiple sources confirmed.
Sinn Féin is understood to be supportive of the motion.
It comes as the number of people in homeless accommodation reaches record highs.
It was announced yesterday that a protest will take place on December 17, the same day that the cabinet reshuffle will occur.
Government sources told The Irish Mirror that it is expected that a countermotion would be tabled, as they branded the motion "cynical" and accused People Before Profit of "playing politics with housing".
Speaking on the motion of no confidence in the Housing Minister, People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith said: “We are moving this motion of no confidence in the Minister and his government, not for personal reasons, but based on the fact that the housing crisis continues to deteriorate.
"The housing crisis has long been regarded as an emergency, but now we can see that it is an absolute catastrophe. Simply put, our housing system is broken thanks to successive failures of government policy.
“The crisis has gotten so bad that the number of people in emergency accommodation reached 11,397, the highest ever recorded. 3,480 of those in emergency accommodation in October were children.
“There is a massive recruitment and retention crisis in our public services where healthcare workers, emergency services workers, public transport workers, teachers and many others simply cannot afford rents. Many of these workers are choosing to emigrate. A recent Bank and Payments Federation Ireland report shows rent in Ireland has increased by an average of 82% since 2010, four and a half times the EU average of 18%.
“On top of this already shocking crisis it has recently been revealed that there were just 647 new homes were built by local authorities in the first half of this year, and 11 local authorities built no houses at all. We keep hearing from the government that the answer is supply, but we simply do not see that supply materialising. The government are failing to address this crisis because they are tied to a privatised model of housing delivery on a for profit basis. What we need is a housing model that delivers housing from the state to meet the needs of people.
“The housing and homelessness crisis is now leading to a serious increase in the scapegoating of migrants and refugees.
“The housing crisis is a chronic indictment of the government, the Housing Minister, and successive Housing Ministers from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. It is for these reasons that we have decided to table a no confidence motion in the Minister and his government. We need a fundamental change of direction in housing policy. For this to happen, instead of a change of Taoiseach on December 17 we need a change of government.”
A Government spokesperson said that "the Government has every confidence in Minister Darragh O’Brien".
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