Sinn Féin in Dublin has hit back at the Taoiseach after he took aim at local councils over the housing crisis in a speech to the Fine Gael party conference last night.
Last night Leo Varadkar told Fine Gael members at the party's annual conference, that parties on the left and Sinn Féin were voting against new housing projects.
He also hit out at the values of Sinn Féin, saying he would never enter a coalition with them.
“At some point between now and the summer of next year, there will be a General Election. And I can tell you tonight that under no circumstances will Fine Gael enter Government with Sinn Féin,” he said.
"They don’t respect our Courts, they don’t respect our Gardaí, they don’t respect any of the four parliaments they are elected to, including the ones they turn up for, they don’t respect our democracy,” he said.
Councillor Mícheál Mac Donncha, the Sinn Féin deputy group leader on Dublin City Council, says the Taoiseach was trying to mislead the public with his statements.
"The Taoiseach was talking nonsense and quite deliberately so, I'm sure he knows what he is saying is not true," Cllr Mac Donncha claimed.
"There is a queue of proposals for housing - social and affordable - projects in Dublin City Council and the other Council areas and that's on the desk of the Minister Eoghan Murphy."
Cllr Mac Donncha added that the proposals were "either waiting for approval in principal or waiting for funding.
"The problem we have is government policy which sets its face against the type of direct state involvement in housing that we had for decades under successive governments - including Fine Gael governments.
"But now because this government is committed to the interests of big landlords, property speculators and vulture funds we see the housing crisis that we have suffered by thousands upon thousands of people," he added.
