Gordon Lyons brands ‘utter nonsense’ claim £6.5m on Derry temporary housing is mere ‘sticking plaster’

Transcript

00:00Over £18 million, Minister, has been spent on temporary accommodation in 2023-24, again

00:05on your watch, including £6.5 million in the Derry and Strabane district council area

00:09and £6 million in the Belfast council area. Does your Department actually have a strategy

00:14to deal with this, or is it just expensive temporary sticking plasters?

00:17The Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning

00:18Utter rubbish from the Member. He asked me what I did. I have outlined the list of the

00:28things I have done during my time in office. He is shaking his head. It is factual. It

00:33is absolutely what I have done. I can assure the Member that he is not rattling me at all.

00:38He is making me very excited, because I have the opportunity to highlight the work we are

00:43doing in this area. It is a serious matter and it has been my top priority since coming

00:49into office. I am really pleased that we have been able to start to make a difference, and

00:54we will continue to do that. The Member mentioned temporary accommodation. A huge amount of

00:58money has had to be spent on that. I want to spend more of that on prevention, but we

01:04have a Minister in this Department who is looking at new and novel ways of tackling

01:10this issue. Yes, my voice may be a little bit weak, but the action that I have taken

01:15has been strong.