Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has described Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald as the “great misleader” in the Dáil on Wednesday.
Mr Varadkar said Ms McDonald wanted to “get into office by creating a false impression” of Ireland.
The Fine Gael leader was speaking during Leaders’ Questions, as Ms McDonald noted that students were due to protest later this afternoon outside Leinster House over the accommodation crisis.
Ms McDonald told the Taoiseach: “Your 12 years in Government is a story of Fine Gael failure in housing”.
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She said students felt the accommodation crisis was “robbing them of a future in Ireland”. The Dublin Central TD said the lack of affordable housing meant students were choosing between “financial hardship or dropping out”.
“Thousands of young adults find themselves stuck living at home with their parents, and many finally decide just to leave Ireland to have their chance at a better future,” she said.
Ms McDonald also said that listening to the Taoiseach, “you would imagine there’s no problem at all” and that according to Mr Varadkar “there was no problem” in relation to housing.
“According to the Taoiseach it’s not a problem it seems that we are losing again a generation of talented, qualified people that we need here in this country to build Ireland,” she said.
“According to you, Leo Varadkar, it’s all going to plan. That’s in your world – in the real world where people with their eyes open look and care to see the evidence before them, our young people are really struggling.”
Mr Varadkar said he had acknowledged there was a problem and that student accommodation was hard to find and expensive.
He asked Ms McDonald why she had sought to “misrepresent” what he had said and “seek to put words in my mouth”.
The Taoiseach said the Sinn Féin leader was “the great misleader” and that she was “pushing” a narrative that there is “a mass one-way exodus of Irish citizens, nationals and young people from our country”.
Mr Varadkar said the truth was different and that while 80,000 Irish people had left in the last three years, 90,000 had come back.
“Why would you never say that, because you don’t want people to know the truth, because you are the misleader and you want to get your way into office by creating a false impression about our country and what it’s like,” he said.
Mr Varadkar added that students would “not be forgotten” in next week’s Budget and that more action would be taken in relation to accommodation.
He said the Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien was working on proposals to extend the rent a room scheme to people who are in social housing and that “a lot are located close to college campuses”.
“His [Mr O’Brien’s] proposal is to make sure that somebody who is in social housing can rent a room without it affecting their rent or their eligibility for a medical card,” Mr Varadkar said.
