PRESS RELEASE

Mitchell and Fine Gael go overboard with Hotel and luxury liner proposal to accommodate housing applicants


FineGael Deputy Leader Jim Mitchell has gone overboard with his backing for a proposal to use flotel accommodation for people on housing waiting lists, said Cork North Central Deputy Billy Kelleher. "Fine Gael is in danger of becoming the laughing stock of Irish politics with it's policy-on-the-hoof approached to the serious issue of housing now in need of urgent review," he said. "Mr. Mitchell's steadfast commitment to his proposal suggests that it now constitutes Fine Gael policy. There is an onus on the Party to immediately clarify whether or not this is the case having previously rejected the idea of using flotels to accommodate asylum seekers," he added. "I was amazed today to discover that what I thought was a flash-in-pan proposal had been fleshed out by Mr. Mitchell. His latest suggestion that luxury liners be used to accommodate housing applicants beggars belief," "I'm happy for Mr. Mitchell that he has had the pleasure of being on a cruise in the Caribbean for a break and that it had been 'luxurious'. Everyone loves a holiday but when your holiday experience is taken as a feasibility study for new political policy it is an indication that you either spent too long in the sun or that your break wasn't long enough," said Deputy Kellleher. "It currently costs between £1,745 and £2,527 per person for a week long Caribbean cruise. Fine Gael should explain to taxpayers whether it considers it value for money to spend such amounts creating the experience of life on a Caribbean cruise for the housing applicants it proposes to accommodate in flotels," he added. "I would like to hear Mr. Mitchell's costing on this proposal and how, if Fine Gael has adopted his proposal as policy, it will cater for housing applicants from the Midlands and those who do not live on the coast. Nothing but a full statement on this matter will settle the minds of tax-payers and housing applicants," he concluded.