Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Bill 2023: Second Stage [Private Members]

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

Last week, the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, was critical of our party for having the temerity to table a Private Member's motion calling on Government not only to extend the ban on no-fault evictions but also to take emergency measures to both reduce homelessness and increase the supply of social and affordable housing.

The Taoiseach said that, because the motion was not legally-binding, it suggested that the party was not serious about the matter and was only playing politics. We wanted to leave the Taoiseach and his Government colleagues, including the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, under no doubt whatsoever about our seriousness on this issue and, therefore, today we are tabling legislation that would be, if passed by this House, legally binding on the Oireachtas to extend that ban.

As the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, will be aware, it is almost word-for-word a replica of his own legislation from October last, simply with the dates of the Bill changed. We did that to ensure its speedy passage through the Bills Office to get it on the Order Paper. As the Minister also will be aware, my view is there needs to be a single amendment to the Bill to ensure where a homeowner who himself or herself is homeless or at risk of homelessness, he or she should be able to access his or her property.

The reason we tabled the Bill today is because we wanted to give every Member of Dáil Éireann a simple opportunity to state clearly and categorically through a vote on legislation as to whether he or she is in favour of extending this crucial protection for renters or whether he or she would vote to increase homelessness. In fact, I would have thought the Government would have welcomed that vote. The Taoiseach has been particularly brash, if not at certain points callous, in his defence of the Government's position in recent weeks. I thought he would relish the opportunity to stand up and be counted and have all of the Deputies supporting his Government, Independents included, do likewise but now it appears that the Government does not want a vote on this Bill at all.

At the eleventh hour, Government tabled a reasoned amendment. I do not think there has been in my time in the Oireachtas an amendment of this nature to a Private Members' Bill. The purpose of that is to avoid the vote on the legislation itself.

Deputy David Cullinane

Hear, hear.

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

I have to ask the Minister what is he afraid of. Why will he not allow all of the Deputies in this House have a vote on the legislation we are bringing before him?

Deputy David Cullinane

Hear, hear.

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

The answer is clear. The Minister is clearly running scared of giving TDs that vote. The Minister is scared that, in fact, if there was a vote on the legislation itself, his majority might start to whittle away from the six Independent Deputies he cobbled together last week into something fewer in number and tighter than would be comfortable. Therefore, we are faced with the bizarre situation where, albeit it is completely in order in line with Standing Orders and I am not questioning that, we are having an amendment tabled which is an exact replica of the wording of the Minister's counter-motion from last week.

I am urging all TDs in this House to reject this stunt, because that is nothing more than what it is. In fact, if there are TDs in this House who are against the extending of the ban, they should have the courage of their convictions, they should reject the Government's amendment and they should vote against our Bill if that is what they wish. At this late stage, given, as the House will hear from my colleagues over the next period of time, the growing level of concern and in some cases outright fear of tenants facing losing their homes in the coming weeks and months, this Bill is becoming increasingly important.

We are all dealing with cases. In my constituency, I have one particularly difficult case of a woman in her 70s. Her notice to quit is due on Saturday. She has no family or friends to stay with and she should not have to face the prospect of either overholding or presenting and being accepted if a place is available in a shared accommodation low-threshold hostel in Dublin city centre because that is all that is left at this point in time. Nobody should be in emergency accommodation, but particularly not a woman in her 70s who has worked her entire life and whose children have done well and are now living abroad. She is left here to face the consequences of the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien's, housing policy.

The argument is the same as it was last week. The Government has not put in place the mitigation measures and has not put in place a contingency plan to stop the incessant rise of homelessness over the next number of weeks and months. Therefore, the emergency ban on no-fault evictions must be extended, not because it is a solution in and of itself but because it would give the Government the breathing space it needs to ensure that homelessness does not continue to rise but starts to fall. On that basis, I commend the Bill to the House.

Deputy Mairéad Farrell

Of all the terrible housing decisions that this Government and previous Governments have made over the past decade, I truly believe that this one will be judged the harshest because the Minister agrees and admits that thousands of people who are now served with notices to quit are absolutely terrified that over the next period they will end up homeless.

The Minister even admits that we will see an increase in homelessness yet at the exact same time he also admits that there is very little emergency accommodation across this State. I can see it in Galway City Council and Galway County Council. I see it with the people coming in through my door every day. They do not know where they are going. They have no confidence that the Government has any idea where they will go.

The Minister cannot make any mistake about this. The Minister knows that people's lives will be thrown into absolute and utter turmoil because of this decision that he and his colleagues in government have created. That means the care-free innocence of childhood is totally shattered because families are worried. Parents are worried and that, obviously, goes onto the children as well.

The Minister tells us time and time again that he is expanding the tenant in situ scheme. There is something the Minister needs to make clear to local authorities, such as Galway city and Galway county where people are on the housing assistance payment, HAP. It is not clear, if their landlord is willing to sell, if the local authorities should buy them. The Minister is nodding his head but the local authorities do not know the answer to that. Seeing as though that is something the Minister feels strongly about, he needs to make sure it gets out there and he provides a clear briefing to all the local authorities because that is one of the issues that it is continuously being raised.

The Minister is not listening to us in opposition. The Minister is not listening to housing campaigners. The Minister should listen to those people who are absolutely petrified because of the decision that he has made.

Deputy Pa Daly

There was a lot of heat and light, and some nonsense, generated from some TDs over the past two weeks in relation to this issue. I have heard some TDs saying that some tenants will require four years' notice and that the State would come in and issue compulsorily purchase orders, CPOs, on all of these houses. Whether they were concerned with voting to extend the ban or to retain it, there were some strange attempts to divorce themselves from the consequence of their own actions and they attacked Sinn Féin to distract from these consequences.

One hundred and twenty eviction notices will fall due in County Kerry unless our measure is passed. There is little room for prevarication now when the stakes are so high for so many. Speaking to housing officers in Kerry County Council, I hear that the system is already under immense strain. They are under severe pressure and it is like organised chaos.

In my office, my team has heard a number of concerning stories already in Kerry with the ban set to expire. We had contact from one mother of four children who was told that she had to leave by her landlord. She had no options and is terrified that she will end up homeless. Once that happens, it is difficult to see a path back to stable housing for her so long as current Government policies continue. A woman in her 80s was in touch with my office. She was given notice a while back now but with the increased competition for housing and rent prices, she has nowhere to go. These stories will keep on coming over the next few weeks and months.

There has not been a single affordable house built in County Kerry in the past few years and there were 56 adults accessing homeless accommodation in January of this year. On the scheme that was introduced last year, no communication was made to Kerry County Council. When they complained about it, the Taoiseach said that it was a cop-out by Kerry County Council. Without the guidance or management from Central Government, none of the rented accommodation was purchased. The length of time for conveyances did not seem to be taken into account at all.

These figures might seem relatively small but for a rural and isolated county with little resources, the 120 eviction notices, representing probably at least three times the current number of people homeless, represents a huge challenge. When those on HAP or direct provision but eligible to leave are included, the figures are even higher.

In a market where upward pressure is so high, the reality is that the single mothers, the elderly, migrants, disabled and those least able to absorb rent increases will miss out. It will see them filling up emergency accommodation unless the measure passes. There is no getting away from it.

I repeat my call for all Kerry TDs to support this legislation.

Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh

I will not quote myself. Instead, I will read from letters I have received. I will not use names, however, as I do not have people's permission to identify them. Many of them are well known to the city council, homeless services and, probably, other Deputies.

One woman wrote that she had been renting her home for ten years and had been served a notice to quit by her landlord, who intended to sell his property in April. She is out of work due to severe illness and is terrified of the precarious situation she is facing. Her days are filled with medical appointments with nephrologists, renal nurses, renal dietitians and others. Merely staying alive has been a battle in recent years, yet she is now facing homelessness as well. The additional stress and uncertainty this brings further impacts on her kidney disease. When she leaves her rental property, there will be no affordable alternatives within her HSE catchment area. This means she will lose access to her support services, which have kept her alive thus far.

Another woman has been on the housing list for 11 years. She is renting through HAP. Her landlord is moving into her home in May and has given her notice to quit. The original date was 17 March, but that has been extended to 1 May. She has two kids who are aged ten and eight years. She is sick of having to move them every two years and start all over again, making new friends and trying to have a social life.

Another woman has been on Dublin City Council's housing waiting list for 12 years. She is the mother of a 12-year-old son, living in private rented accommodation in Crumlin and in receipt of rent supplement. Her landlord plans to sell the property and has given her notice that she is to find alternative accommodation in the coming months. The Covid eviction ban meant she was able to stay on in the property when the landlord originally wanted to sell. Now, she is facing eviction.

I will finish with this letter. The person is getting terrible trouble from a landlord, who has solicitors and estate agents working to try to get the person out of the house. The person cannot take much more of this harassment. The person has two children – an eight-year-old son and a four-year-old daughter.

Deputy Denise Mitchell

I am appalled by the Government's decision to lift the eviction ban at a time when so many people have received notices to quit. The ban on evictions was meant to give the Government time to put measures in place. Instead, the Government squandered that time. According to data from the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, for quarter 3 of last year, 1,839 notices to quit were sent by letter in Dublin alone. Sinn Féin has been asking the Government a question that it does not seem able to answer. I ask the Minister again – where are these people going to go?

I could raise any number of cases with the Minister today, but I will raise two. A woman in her 70s is staring eviction in the face. She has nowhere left to turn. She was told that she had to wait until her notice-to-quit date fell. She would then have to declare herself homeless. Imagine the mental trauma, stress and anxiety caused by becoming homeless in one's 70s and not knowing where one is going to go. It is a disgrace.

A young woman with three children is going to be made homeless in the middle of April. She is devastated and heartbroken at the thought of having to tell her children the reality. Where are she and her three children going to go? Please, tell me. This woman has told me that she is on the verge of a breakdown and cannot take any more.

The Minister and his predecessors in housing have failed dramatically. This Bill aims to prevent no-fault evictions. It also aims to give the Government time yet again to put measures in place. I appeal to the Minister and the absent Independent Deputies to stand up and support this Bill.

Deputies

Hear, hear.

Deputy Chris Andrews

I commend my Sinn Féin colleagues on their work in introducing this Bill.

The Government's legacy will be one of failure in housing, with Fianna Fáil, the Green Party and Fine Gael repeatedly failing to stand on the side of those most in need. The Government failed to provide for the most basic of needs – a safe home for them and their families – for ordinary people, including more vulnerable members of society. The figures released recently by the RTB show that many of those issued with notices to quit are families with children, couples and pensioners. Some of these will find themselves in need of emergency accommodation, of which there is none even for those who are already out on the street and sleeping rough. People will have to couch surf and relationships will break down. That is inevitable. Others will be forced to emigrate or will find themselves sleeping in cars.

As the private rental market continues to fail to provide sufficient and affordable housing, the Government decision to end the eviction ban will see more people enter into homelessness and hardship. I was contacted by a tenant today who had received an eviction notice. She said that she was scared for her children. The Government has lost control of the homeless crisis and levels of homelessness continue to rise. By ending the winter ban on evictions, this number will grow larger in the coming months. The damage being inflicted on ordinary people by the Government is heartless and will be felt for generations to come. I can see its impact across my constituency. Young couples want to settle down in communities like Ringsend and start families, but they cannot do so. They find it impossible to locate affordable housing. The housing at the Irish Glass Bottle site is not going to be affordable. What is happening is having a devastating impact on communities across the city and country. I support the motion.

Deputy Martin Kenny

We are back here again following a week during which people were left aghast by what the Government did in removing the eviction ban. For people across this country, this has been a terrible calamity. While it is much worse in the vast urban areas of Dublin and other cities, even rural areas like my constituency are being impacted by the ban's removal. A video is going around of an eviction in Bundoran in recent weeks. A family of eight were thrown out of their house. That is what it will be like for many families throughout the country if this situation is not resolved. There are landlords who will gather up the belongings of small children, put them in black plastic bags and throw them outside the door, as happened in Bundoran a week or two ago. The only protection people had was the Government's eviction ban, but the Government is taking that ban away and putting nothing in place to replace it. That is our difficulty.

The legislation we have tabled is a carbon copy of what the Minister tabled last October, yet he says it will not work. It did not work last October because the Government has done nothing since then. We want the Minister to keep driving forward, if only for the sake of people in this situation, and to show the same determination to provide housing. However, we are not seeing that. All we see are more empty promises.

The reality for many people is what happened in Bundoran and what will happen across a large amount of the country. Many of my colleagues have set out instances involving people in their constituencies who are experiencing these difficulties. I have encountered similar cases. I spoke to a woman the other day. Her husband has multiple sclerosis and she has a small child with a medical condition. She has received an eviction notice. She does not know where she is going to go. She is trying to get a local authority house and hoping beyond hope that something will come up. She may have to move to another end of the county to get something. That is a large upheaval.

The Government has stated that many people do not have to end up in emergency accommodation. If they do not get emergency accommodation, they are advised to live with family members, couch surf with friends and find somewhere else. There is no somewhere else. That is the reality. Recently, I spoke to someone in the housing section of a housing authority. She told me that the only hope people had was if Jesus came back and carried out the miracle of the loaves and fishes again. This is what we need to do with housing. We simply do not have houses; they do not exist.

The Minister will tell us about everything he has done and provided for, that there are more houses now, with more coming on stream and more planning permissions going through. It is all nonsense, and is no good to the ordinary people out there who have nowhere to live. The Minister still does not have an answer to the question of where they will go when they get an eviction notice.

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Deputy Darragh O'Brien)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "That" and substitute with the following:

"Dáil Éireann declines to give the Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Bill 2023 a second reading consequent on Dáil Éireann’s passage of the following motion on 22nd March, 2023:

— the Government agreed on 7th March that the ‘Winter Emergency Period’ under the Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Act 2022 would come to an end on 31 March 2023, with deferred tenancy terminations taking effect over a staggered period from 1 April to 18th June, 2023 as planned and legislated for under that Act;

— the Government has used the past several months to increase housing supply for those most in need. In the last Quarter of 2022, approximately 6,000 new social homes were delivered, including almost 5,000 new build social housing homes;

— during the last Quarter of 2022, 1,532 local authority homes were refurbished under the voids programme and restored to use; the voids programme will also be intensified in 2023;

— just prior to and during the period of the moratorium local authorities opened some 500 additional homeless emergency beds and 170 cold weather beds;

— the most effective way to assist renters is to increase supply and accelerate delivery of housing for purchase and for private rental, cost rental and social rental; every effort will continue to be made to prevent people becoming homeless;

— the delivery of new affordable homes for purchase and cost rental by local authorities, Approved Housing Bodies, the Land Development Agency and the First Home Scheme is being delivered at scale and a pipeline of delivery for the coming years is established and strengthening;

— measures are being taken to put in place additional accommodation to prevent homelessness including:

— an increase in the number of social housing acquisitions target to at least 1,500 in 2023 with a further expansion of the target as required;

— an additional 1,000 homes through Targeted Leasing initiatives in 2023 and 2024; and

— the amendment of the Capital Advance Leasing Facility used by Approved Housing Bodies to assist them in their efforts in delivering social homes;

— to reduce the number of households at risk of homelessness Government plans to rapidly:

— give tenants the ‘First Right of Refusal’ to buy their homes, by requiring a landlord selling a property to first offer it to the tenant on an independent valuation basis for sale;

— expand the “First Home scheme” to support tenants to purchase under the “First Right of Refusal”;

— enhance the availability of the Local Authority Home loan to tenants utilizing the “First Right of Refusal”;

— work with local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies to develop a ‘cost rental’ model for tenants at risk of homelessness but not on social housing supports to enable them to continue to rent their home;

— rapidly establish the cost rental scheme on an administrative basis to ensure no eligible household is left behind prior to any required legislation;

— a comprehensive review of the Rental Sector has commenced that will take into account the significant regulatory changes over the past several years;

— the review aims to put in place a private rental sector which gives long-term certainty to tenants while ensuring that property providers – both small and large scale – are encouraged to provide badly needed rental property for all those who depend on it;

— over the coming months, the Government will work to put together a comprehensive new budgetary package of effective measures for both tenants and landlords that support renters and providers of accommodation both in respect of short term measures and the longer term certainty for renters and property providers;

— increasing social, affordable and private housing supply, for renters and those looking to purchase a home, is key to improving our housing system and eradicating homelessness. Almost 30,000 homes were built last year, an increase of 45.2% from 2021 (20,560) and 41.3% from 2019 (21,134), and 5,250 or 21% higher than the Housing for All target of 24,600 for 2022;

— the Government will continue to expand the provision of social and cost rental accommodation to ensure that all sectors of our society have available to them rental accommodation that meets their needs;

increasing social housing:

— a total of 9,183 social homes were delivered in 2021;

— when verified and published in the coming weeks, figures will show more social housing new builds were delivered in 2022 than in any year since 1975. Furthermore, in 2020 and 2021, more than €88 million was spent in bringing 6,032 vacant social homes back into use;

— a record €4.5 billion in State housing investment in 2023 will ensure the substantial uplift in supply in 2022 can be maintained and exceeded, with 9,100 direct build social homes and 5,500 affordable homes to be delivered;

— the review of the Capital Advance Leasing Facility funding model which will be formally launched later this month will allow Approved Housing Bodies to deliver social housing in all local authority areas;

— recent adjustments to the HAP scheme, including increasing the discretionary base level of HAP, are anticipated to have a positive effect on tenancy sustainability and a corresponding mitigating effect on the Debt Management Process (DMP) and cessations;

— the Government will amend the HAP scheme to ensure sustainable tenancies including as appropriate secure payments to landlords where the tenant defaults with effect from May 1st 2023.

increasing tenant in situ acquisitions:

— in light of the challenges in addressing homelessness, combined with continuing exits from the private rental market, Government will continue to support opportunities for the acquisition of properties to prevent homelessness and will take further targeted measures to increase acquisitions of properties where a landlord is selling the property;

— in April 2022, Government reinstated the delegated sanction to local authorities in respect of social housing acquisitions. The reinstatement of delegated sanction has allowed local authorities to respond with more flexibility to secure acquisitions which support a household to exit or to prevent homelessness;

— the Government will support local authorities to acquire at least 1,500 social homes in 2023 with a further expansion of that target as required. The majority of these will be focused on properties where landlords are exiting the market and there is already a social housing tenant in place;

— the Department of Housing has written to each local authority to instruct them to target acquisitions on HAP or RAS tenants under a Notice to Quit, develop their own acquisition plan and seeking a report on acquisitions in train for 2023 which is due to be received by the end of March;

— the Department of Housing is setting up a “Acquisition Delivery Team” to ensure each Local Authority meets its Tenant in situ purchase targets;

— a cost rental tenant in situ backstop will be applied on an administrative basis from April 1st prior to legislative enactment with a view to supporting households at risk of homelessness;

increasing affordable housing:

— acknowledges 2022 was the first full year of affordable housing delivery in a generation. Supply at scale will be achieved through a mix of new or extended initiatives, including the First Home scheme, local authority-provided affordable purchase schemes, the Help to Buy initiative and the expanded Local Authority Home Loan;

— cost rental housing – a new form of State-backed secure, long-term rental tenure with rents targeted at a minimum of 25% below open market rates – is being delivered at scale, with hundreds of cost rental homes tenanted. Investment of over €1 billion to support affordability measures and deliver more affordable purchase and cost rental homes in 2023;

— the Government is developing proposals for a bespoke cost rental model which would see a provider avail of this First Right of Refusal to allow tenants who have received such a notice and who are at risk of homelessness, but not on social housing supports, continue to reside in the property. This would involve an option for AHBs and local authorities to purchase the property and to continue to let it with financial support from the Government. This will be rapidly established on an administrative basis prior to legislation;

improving viability:

— following consultation with stakeholders the Government is taking steps to address viability in the provision of apartments including activating uncommenced planning permission through engagement with site owners through the expansion of the Land Development Agency’s Project Tosaigh and the Housing Agency’s Croí Cónaithe (Cities) Scheme which will help to deliver increased supply over the next few years;

— additionally, proposals are being prepared for Government for a new viability measure to activate stalled planning permissions and bring forward cost rental at scale for consideration in April;

reducing vacancy:

— the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage recently published the Vacant Homes Action Plan, which outlines progress and details new actions that will be implemented to continue to return as many vacant properties back to use as possible, increasing the supply of housing available, and revitalising local communities;

— measures already taken by the Government include expanding the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant; funding full-time vacant homes officers in every local authority; exemptions to planning permissions to convert vacant commercial premises to residential use; enhancing the Fair Deal scheme to incentivise the selling or renting used homes;

— measures in the Action Plan include a €150 million Urban Regeneration Development Fund for local authorities to acquire vacant or derelict properties and sites for re-use or sale and a new local authority-led programme is being developed to help them buy or compulsory purchase vacant homes in their areas and resell them on the open market;

— the Government is building on the initial success of the Croi Cónaithe vacancy grants scheme and will change the eligibility date for properties to include properties built prior to 2007 with effect from 1st May, 2023;

— these steps will include the extension of the Croí Cónaithe refurbishment scheme to include properties which are made available for rent and not just owner occupied from the 1st of May 2023. Grant rates will also be reviewed;

enhancing Tenants rights:

— the on-going reform and resourcing of the RTB to ensure it is fit for purpose for regulating the rental sector;

— the major expansion of tenants' rights including tenancies of indefinite duration and increase in notice to quit periods;

— the extension of the RPZ system to 2024 and 2% rent cap;

— the upcoming Residential Tenancies Bill as a further opportunity to strengthen tenants rights;

supporting the use of new building technologies:

— funding of €94 million has been allocated to pay down local authority loans on legacy indebted sites, which can deliver social housing projects through the use of accelerated delivery models, principally off-site/Modern Methods of Construction (MMC). By paying down the outstanding loans, the fund will free up these sites for immediate development. Local authorities recouped the cost of repaying loans on 26 separate sites, all of which will be developed using MMC;

preventing and addressing homelessness:

— the continuing increase in the numbers accessing emergency accommodation throughout the country is a serious concern. The Government, local authorities and others are making every effort to reduce homelessness;

— while the eviction moratorium slowed down the numbers entering homelessness, it did not prevent it. Additional measures are underway to urgently and substantially scale up housing delivery, including emergency accommodation, affordable housing, cost rental accommodation and social housing;

— the Government is aware of the challenges faced in sourcing emergency accommodation throughout the country and local authorities are working with the Department to further increase capacity;

— the homeless emergency accommodation budget for 2023 makes provision for €215m in funding for homeless services, an increase from €194m in 2022. The extra funding for Homelessness reflects the priority that this Government is giving to Homelessness;

— the Department has made it clear that funding and resources are not an obstacle to the urgent efforts required to address homelessness; The Government is committed to ensuring emergency accommodation is provided wherever needed through a range of mechanisms including direct purchasing and leasing;

— the Department is currently working with local authorities to bring on stream an additional 2,000 beds in 2023. To date in 2023, almost 200 new beds have opened in the Dublin Region. The Department is actively working with all Local authorities to ensure there is sufficient emergency accommodation available to people presenting as homeless and it is expected that a further 1,000 beds will open in quarter 2;

— local authorities can avail of commercial accommodation such as hotels and B&Bs to accommodate those seeking emergency homeless accommodation in cases where no other appropriate emergency accommodation is available;

— to tackle accommodation shortages in the rental market, the Government is strengthening regulatory controls on short-term lets with a ban on the advertising of non-principal private residences in Rent Pressure Zones for short-term letting purposes, where the necessary planning permission is not in place;

tax measures:

— the Government has introduced a new rent tax credit valued at €500 per renter per year for those taxpayers who are paying for rental accommodation during the years 2022 to 2025;

— if a tax payer lets a room in his or her home, they may claim a tax exemption in respect of the rental income. The rental income cannot exceed the exemption limit of €14,000. Otherwise, the total rental income is taxable;

— the Government will extend the Rent a Room scheme disregard for social welfare recipients and extend the disregard into medical card criteria from May 1st 2023 and allow Local Authority tenancies to access the scheme;

— the doubling of the cap on deductibility for a landlord’s pre-letting expenditure for previously vacant properties to €10,000 per property;

— the Government provided for a new tax deduction (of up to €10,000) for landlords who undertake retrofitting works while the tenant remains in situ;

— reforms of the Fair Deal Scheme reduced disincentives to renting out and selling a home vacated when its owner enters a nursing home including a disregard of 60% (rather than the previous 20%) of any rental income derived from the principal private residence (PPR) and a 3-year cap on contributions on the sale of a home;

— will further move to eliminate remaining barriers to older people utilizing the Fair Deal scheme who wish to rent out their homes;

— the comprehensive review of the rental sector will include an effective budgetary package for landlords and tenants;

in relation to the planning powers:

— to help expedite the provision of housing by local authorities, new provisions came into effect from 8 March 2023 and will provide a temporary exemption from the "Part 8" planning approval process by elected members for local authority own developments for social and affordable (including cost rental) housing which commence construction before the end of 2024;

having regard to progress already made:

— the Housing for All Action Plan Update commits the Government to reviewing the national housing targets and projections when the full Census 2022 is published later this year. This will include refreshed targets with subsets for social, affordable and market delivery that reflect need and demand, and a scaling-up to ensure optimal levels of sustainable supply over the lifetime of the plan in line with increased capacity in the construction sector;

furthermore the Government agrees to:

— remove barriers for older people in long-term nursing home care who wish to lease out their homes, effective from 1st May, 2023;

— increase the refurbishment grant rate for the Croí Cónaithe (Towns) Fund Scheme, to reflect current building costs, effective from 1st May, 2023;

— extend the Croí Cónaithe scheme to include properties which are made available for rent and not just owner-occupied, effective from 1st May, 2023;

— revise the Croí Cónaithe scheme to include properties built prior to 2007, effective from 1st May, 2023;

— extend the Rent-a-Room Relief scheme to people receiving social welfare payments who rent out a room so that they do not lose supplementary benefits, such as the medical card, effective from 1st May, 2023;

— introduce in Budget 2024 a tax relief scheme to take effect in the current tax year for small landlords;

— amend the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) to guarantee payment to landlords where the tenant defaults on payment of contribution to HAP, effective from 1st May, 2023; and

— immediately engage with site owners who have obtained planning permission under the Strategic Infrastructure Development and have not yet commenced building due to viability issues, in order to ensure immediate commencement of these projects under affordable housing schemes."

I welcome the opportunity to discuss this matter again today. Regardless of the number of motions or Bills put forward by members of the Opposition, as well-intentioned as they may be, I firmly believe that the Government is correct in the actions it is taking. I have listened to Members opposite read out some descriptions of the lived experiences of renters. I, too, hear about many of the instances they are referring to. My Government colleagues and I meet people at our weekly clinics. We read the emails and we take the phone calls from people who are struggling and looking for answers.

For the benefit of the House, I will again outline the solutions that are available right now. If people or households are in receipt of HAP or RAS, they are eligible for social housing. If they are concerned about becoming homeless as a result of a notice of termination on the grounds of sale, they should immediately contact their local authorities for assistance. The local authority will advise them on housing supports which can include the purchase of the property by the local authority for continued use by that tenant. That scheme is being ramped up and expanded. If their income is above the social housing income limits and they wish to purchase their home - as many renters do - a new opportunity to buy will be put in place to help tenants to accept an offer-of-first-refusal to buy the home. The person or household can access the first home scheme, which Sinn Féin opposed, to help them afford it. The latter is a new Government scheme that helps to bridge the gap between the finance a person has and the finance needed to own a home. It is specifically for newly built properties, but will be extended to second-hand homes in these specific and focused cases.

Where a person or household has income above the social housing limits but cannot afford to purchase a home even with assistance from the first home scheme, a cost-rental option will be put in place to allow local authorities and approved housing bodies, AHBs, to buy that home for cost-rental. The tenant will remain in the home, paying a rent which is not driven by markets or profit. This will be done on an administrative basis from 1 April. No one in this House wants to see people evicted or, worse still, evicted into homelessness. These solutions ensure safeguards are in place. Everything we in the Government do is focused on preventing homelessness and helping people to exit homelessness to safe and secure housing.

The Sinn Féin Bill before the House will have only one outcome. It will shrink the number of homes that are available to rent. Less than a month ago, Sinn Féin proposed an extension to the eviction moratorium to end with a cliff edge on New Year's Eve. Less than one week ago, the same party, Sinn Féin, proposed an extension to the eviction moratorium, to end - again on a cliff edge - on 31 January 2024. In the Bill before us, Sinn Féin is proposing an extension to the eviction moratorium, with a phasing-out period to 18 April next year. Lest anyone be in doubt, Sinn Féin is playing politics with this matter.

An Ceann Comhairle

If this is going to continue, I will suspend the sitting. It is a basic tenet of proper parliamentary debate that Deputies listen to what others have to say. Can we do that please?

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

I will try.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

As I was saying, more than 1,300 were approved under the first home scheme, which many renters avail of and which Sinn Féin also opposed.

Because they do not care.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

-----under Housing for All to deliver more social homes than we have done in generations-----

An Ceann Comhairle

I am sure you will not heckle each other.

Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh

I listened to the Minister acutely and nobody would think that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been in power for the last 100 years. I remind him that Sinn Féin has never been in government in the South of this island. To start blaming Sinn Féin and saying it is Sinn Féin's fault where the Government is going, or not going, with housing is ridiculous, which most people recognise. The only way I can make sense of this decision is to believe the Government and all of the Government TDs do not understand the damage and harm they are about to do. They do not realise the strength and depth of feeling on this issue. In my county, Mayo, the birthplace of Michael Davitt, the word "eviction" causes a deep and visceral reaction. People will remember this for a very long time, even this Minister's own people. I have spoken to Fianna Fáil activists on the ground, people who have supported Fianna Fáil for years. They do not expect anything different from Fine Gael, but they do expect something different from Fianna Fáil. Fianna Fáil members, particularly older members who were around when homes were built in the poorest of times in the 1960s and 1970s, cannot believe how it has abandoned them. I spoke to one such man yesterday in his 70s who is a retired civil servant. He worked all his life, paid all his taxes and this is how the Government treats him. His landlord will not renew his lease and he is left in a precarious situation in his 70s. He cannot be considered for a mortgage or anything else. He told me he feels trapped and full of fear because of what the Government is doing to him.

I have been dealing with another woman who works in Westport. She was issued with a notice to quit on New Year's Eve after living in the same home for ten years. Since then, she has been desperately looking for somewhere to live for her and her daughter. She needs to be in Westport for work and so her daughter can go to the childminder. She said that she has viewed many properties but has not been successful. She is at her wit's end and the end of her tether. She does not know what else she can do. As it stands, at the end of the month, she and her daughter could be homeless. The prospect really scares her. While we were in the middle of a pandemic and most people were at home safe from the virus, she was out working every day, risking bringing Covid-19 back to her daughter. She contacted Mayo County Council and the only thing it can do is give that woman a voucher for bed and breakfast accommodation. When the Minister stands up and says there is this, that and the other in place, what you get is a voucher for bed and breakfast accommodation you cannot even stay in during the day.

Deputy Claire Kerrane

I also listened to the Minister and he spent ten minutes doing what he accused Sinn Féin of doing when he said we were playing politics. I listened to the debate. We have put on the Dáil record the reality for people with eviction notices and what they are facing. They are not a cohort of people the Minister has spoken to or about, in relation to this contribution. In fact, he spent most of his contribution criticising Sinn Féin, which is playing politics, precisely what we have not done. We have brought the voices of people facing eviction, many of them families with children, to the Dáil. That is the right thing to do. We also laid out the facts, which cannot be disputed. Rents are up. House prices are up. Homelessness is up. The Government is not meeting its targets. The Minister spoke about 5,000 or 6,000 social homes, which is a drop in the ocean compared to what is required. My county, Roscommon, had the second-largest increase in rents last year, which is unheard of. The average rent in County Roscommon is now more than €1,000 a month. The situation in Galway is dire. There are no properties to rent in most of the main towns, of which Ballinasloe is a prime example. Not one single rental property is available in Ballinasloe. There is a waiting list for emergency accommodation. In the Minister's ten minutes, he did not answer the question of where are these people going to go. If I lived in Ballinasloe and I received an eviction notice, I would not be able to get emergency accommodation because there is a waiting list. There is nowhere to rent. Where would I go? The Minister has not answered that question. That is the problem. Local authority stock is not there. There is nowhere to rent and there is nowhere to go.

I met a lone parent in my office this morning who is living in her mother's sitting room with her three-year-old son. Many more will join her in similar situations on Saturday and from Saturday on, living in overcrowded accommodation, putting huge pressure and stress on families and literally robbing children of their childhoods. That is another thing the Minister did not speak about. Children's lives are being absolutely destroyed by this Government and the Minister is sitting there, going ahead, despite knowing exactly what this is going to do to people across the State. It is a great shame and it is going to lead to heartbreak and misery for families across this State.

Deputy Patricia Ryan

I thank my colleague, Deputy Ó Broin, for bringing this Bill to the Dáil. The Minister must now realise that this is at least the fourth motion or Bill in the last month related to the eviction ban and extending it. Is he not listening? Four times in the space of one month the Opposition has pleaded with the Government to extend the eviction ban and four times the Minister failed to do it. It is ridiculous. If not to us, I ask the Minister to please listen to his conscience and extend the eviction ban until January 2024. When the eviction ban lapses on 31 March, there will be a steady flow of families in south Kildare who will be made homeless through no fault of their own. They are people just trying to get by and live their lives as best they can. As Government TDs know, emergency homeless accommodation is beyond breaking point all over the country already. Where are the families supposed to go? At some point, the Minister may have to answer that question. Everybody who has asked him in the last month has gotten no answer and he has declined to answer at every opportunity. Many will have no choice but to return to their parents' houses, couch surf or become rough sleepers. Imagine telling an old-age pensioner he or she has to become a rough sleeper. They are the backbone of our country. The Minister is an absolute disgrace. I urge him and his colleagues to support Sinn Féin's Bill and use emergency planning and procurement powers to target vacant properties, which are dotted all over County Kildare. Everywhere I go, there is dereliction. I urge the Minister to heed Sinn Féin's call to start the biggest social and affordable housing programme in the history of the State so that folks can access affordable housing to buy or rent. I urge the Government and its backbenchers to take the last chance to do the right thing, do the right thing for people who voted for the Government and keep families in their homes. Perhaps the Independent Deputy in south Kildare, Deputy Berry, and Deputy Heydon, might like to also do the right thing because people voted them in to do the right thing. They have their chance now.

Deputy Martin Browne

Sinn Féin could not in all conscience allow the Government to end the eviction ban without doing what we can in the interest of renters across County Tipperary and the whole country to change the Government's mind. If we cannot change the mind of the Government or backbenchers, we must look to the Independents who propped up the Government last week. I use the word "Independent" very loosely because if you scratch just below the surface, their true colours start coming out. If they stand by the actions of last week, they will increase the risk of homelessness, which stands at 117 in County Tipperary alone due to fall at the end of this weekend.

I am aware of one estate where the receiver has already moved in to start clearing it out and it intends to start issuing notices to quit as soon as it can. There is another block of apartments where residents have already received notices to quit. Then, there are individuals and families who my party colleagues, Councillor David Dunne and Councillor Tony Black, have been contacted by. The situation is so bad in County Tipperary that they, with three Independent Councillors, have called an emergency meeting of Tipperary Country Council tomorrow to try to put something together to ease the responsibilities the Government has failed to assume. It has failed to look after families across the country. There was an eviction ban and the Government did nothing. No emergency measures were taken at any stage. People were then issued with notices to quit, 117 of them in County Tipperary, as I said. They face a cliff edge at the end of this week, yet the Government still denies there is a problem. In response to the Government's recklessness, my colleagues on Tipperary County Council called that emergency meeting tomorrow.

No responsibility was taken by the Government parties or by the Independents who backed the Government. Even the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has thrown into doubt what the Government told us last week. Deputy Lowry and his colleagues in the Regional Group, who saw fit to prop up the Government last week, have not answered the question either of what happens to those whose eviction notices will fall this weekend.

We have heard repeatedly and we have heard from the Minister again today about turning corners and not making the same mistakes. Let me give the Minister some numbers. He or the Taoiseach does not give them when they stand up to praise themselves. In 2012, 3,808 people were homeless; in 2015, 6,032 people were homeless; in 2018, 9,891 people were homeless; and in 2022, 11,754 people were homeless. Some 3,431 of those are children. Last year, 95 homeless people died under the Government's watch.

The Minister talked about solutions. Those are not solutions. They are failed policies of the Minister and of Fine Gael governments down through the years. Does the Minister wish to know the common denominator in all of that? It is Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. It is not Sinn Féin, the Labour Party, the Social Democrats or anybody on the Opposition side of the House. Those on the Government side of the House have caused this damage. We need Deputies to act in the interest of all these families. We need backbenchers of the three parties and the Independents to have a backbone for a change, reject the Government amendment that is coming, vote with Sinn Féin on this Bill and not to put more people out of their homes and into homelessness.

Deputy Ivana Bacik

On behalf of the Labour Party, I express our strong support for this Bill and commend Deputy Ó Broin and his colleagues on bringing it forward. It is just the most recent of many attempts by Opposition parties and individuals at a sensible and compassionate approach to the growing housing crisis. It is an attempt by us, across the Opposition benches, to offer Government a constructive way of addressing the impending cliff edge which so many families and renters face, starting from this Saturday, 1 April. Once again, I am disappointed to see the Government's amendment. I have read it carefully. It is essentially an expanded version of the amendment it put forward to the motion debated in the House last week. It is expanded and somewhat longer in content but, unfortunately, there is very little to add with regard to practical measures to offer to those facing the coming into effect of the notice to quit.

I am looking at the sorts of measures that are set out in the Government's countermotion. Many of them are very welcome but the key is in the future tense used. We hear the "Government will continue to support opportunities for the acquisition of properties to prevent homelessness". We hear the "cost rental tenant in situ backstop will be applied on an administrative basis from April 1st" and that the Government "will extend the Rent a Room scheme disregard for social welfare recipients". We hear the Department is "currently working with local authorities to bring on stream an additional 2,000 beds" and that the Government is "setting up a "Acquisition Delivery Team"". We hear the Government "will support local authorities to acquire at least 1,500 social homes" and "is developing proposals for a bespoke cost rental model". Those are welcome measures but they are measures in the future tense. They were not adopted or developed by Government during the past five or six months while the current eviction ban was in place.

The Government acknowledges - I think buried on page 5 of the countermotion - that "the eviction moratorium slowed down the numbers entering homelessness". There has been something of a counternarrative coming from some of the Senators and Ministers of State who have been out defending Government on the airwaves in recent days. The reality is the Minister concedes the moratorium slowed down the numbers entering homelessness. It had that very important impact on those individuals who would otherwise be out of their homes. The no-fault eviction ban had a vital purpose. That makes the unexpected decision to lift the ban from 1 April even more indefensible, because this was a deliberate and conscious decision, the impact of which will be to see more families at risk of or entering homelessness from next Saturday.

While much in the amendment is clearly admirable, it again gives little comfort to the families who are facing this cliff edge from Saturday. It reads as if it is again an attempt to give cover to those Deputies on the Government benches, but also Independent Deputies, who backed the Government last week and are feeling the pressure for doing so in their constituencies, because they are now understood to have supported an indefensible decision to lift the eviction ban without seeing the necessary and sensible contingencies put in place. To borrow a phrase from the late, great Labour Party Deputy from Limerick, Jim Kemmy, whose memory we honoured at the weekend at our party conference, all this amendment does is allow certain Deputies to play Mighty Mouse down in the constituency and Mickey Mouse up in Dublin, here in Leinster House, in voting with the Government.

That is something we need to recognise, because nobody who voted for an Independent Deputy in 2020 voted to put people into homelessness or voted for evictions, and yet we need to be mindful that will be the impact of the decision the Government has taken. The discomfort of Deputies in voting with the Government, despite facing this backlash, will be nothing compared with the utter distress and devastation caused to those families who have been served a notice to quit and have nowhere to go. I urge Government and the Minister to recognise the reasonable nature of this Bill and to support it, because it is not too late to extend the eviction ban. It is not too late to reverse the eviction ban and reverse the decision the Government has made. This is the time to do so.

All the allegations from Government of parliamentary theatrics, accusing us in Opposition of playing or posturing, show how out of touch it is with the real anxiety being felt by renters throughout the country. My motivation and that of my Labour Party colleagues in the measures we have put forward, especially in the tabling of the no-confidence motion, is to represent the people who are calling in to us and telling us their stories of hardship. Our motivation is to ensure we bring Ireland more into line with the norm in most European countries, where we see far greater protections for renters and sensible measures being adopted to address chronic housing shortages. However, most urgently, our motivation and that of everyone on this side of the House, is to keep people out of homelessness and prevent our homelessness services from collapsing, because we are all hearing from local authorities, housing charities and homelessness agencies of their utter, shall we say, failure to see how to cope with the numbers who will be coming forward to them.

Buried in the text of the Government's countermotion, there is an acknowledgement of this. According to the motion, Government "is aware of the challenges faced in sourcing emergency accommodation throughout the country and local authorities are working with the department to further increase capacity". Those are not words that will offer great comfort to families facing eviction from this Saturday, because that does not suggest measures have been put in place or, indeed, that local authorities have the capacity to deliver the necessary emergency housing they are all telling us they will need. They are all telling us they are already at capacity. We are hearing from homelessness support workers who are burnt out already in seeking to address existing need, and that is before we see the additional need coming on track.

It was only after the Minister had made the decision to lift the ban that we saw the figures from the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, telling us that nearly 4,000 notices to quit were served in the third quarter of last year alone. We are all getting a sense of the number of people who are affected. All of us acknowledged, when the temporary no-fault ban was put in place, that there were two purposes it would serve. The first was to give breathing space to those renting, to keep them from entering homelessness or, in what I think were the words the Government used, slowing down the numbers entering homelessness. That is considerably important if you are one of the families whose homelessness has been slowed down. It is perhaps an unfortunate term to use. The second purpose, of course, was to give breathing space to Government to address the chronic shortage and ensure homes would be put in place for people who are facing eviction.

That is where there has been a real and serious failure by Government. What we are seeing now by those who are coming to us is an absence of anywhere to go for those who are being evicted. This has been recognised not just by those renting who are telling us of their distress and fear but also by landlords. In recent days, I have heard from several landlords pleading for an extension of the ban. They feel strongly about the Government's slowness in scaling up the tenant in situ scheme in particular as well as the unexpected way the lifting of the ban was announced. It has caused them concern. They are concerned for people renting from them and from others they know.

We have been pressing the Minister on the tenant in situ scheme since November. We put down a Labour Party motion on 9 February putting forward a series of emergency measures, including ramping up the tenant in situ scheme, but what we are still seeing in the Government's countermotion is an acknowledgement it is still being worked on. It is a work in progress. It is not a work that has been completed. There was time. The Minister had time over the winter to put together a proper package of measures that could have been in place for those families facing this cliff edge from this Saturday, 1 April.

That was a cobbled-together series of motions put together at the last minute and not likely in any real sense to come into effect from Saturday. The Government's own Minister of State, Deputy Mary Butler, has criticised some aspects of those measures, which many of us understand are simply not practical to achieve in the short time available between now and Saturday.

Not only did we put down a motion on 9 February putting forward a series of emergency measures that we called on Government to adopt. We also put forward a further constructive proposal, which I sent to the Taoiseach on 16 March, and put to him several times in the Chamber. I still have not received a response. It was a draft Bill to provide for a facility to extend the eviction ban on an evidence base. We called for the ban to be extended, again on a temporary, no-fault basis, until we see a demonstrable drop in homelessness figures over four consecutive months. The Taoiseach carped about how we would measure it, and why it was four months rather than one or two. What we are saying is that we need an evidence base. We need to see something beyond this time basis and references to meteorological conditions. Sure, as the Minister said in a response to a parliamentary question of mine, the winter eviction ban was based on the winter ban in place in France. He has done no modelling on the impact of lifting the ban at this time. He has done no modelling on the impact on landlords or renters of doing so. He has given us no indication that he has any basis in evidence, any rational basis, for lifting it at this time. We have offered an alternative approach motivated by the homeless agencies, the Simon Communities and others which have called for an evidence base to be adopted instead by Government. The Minister's refusal to accept our reasonable proposals, or reasonable proposals from others in opposition, such as Sinn Féin's Bill tonight, that failure has driven us, as a last resort and as a measure we do not take lightly, to put forward the motion of no confidence in the Government tomorrow. We are calling on all Independents to support us in voting no confidence in a Government that has chronically failed to deliver on housing.

Deputy Cian O'Callaghan

The temporary ban on no-fault evictions is simply a sticking plaster on the open wound of the housing disaster. Instead of treating that wound, the Government is abruptly ripping that plaster off, leaving thousands of people exposed to eviction and the threat of becoming homeless. I welcome the Bill and the Social Democrats will be supporting it. We would like to see a later date and, indeed, we believe lifting the ban on no-fault evictions should take place in the context of bringing in full no-fault evictions, which is the European norm. Before I get into the substance of the Bill, I appeal to the Minister to treat this with the absolute seriousness it deserves. That means when these issues are being discussed not coming into the Chamber and spending most of his time attacking Sinn Féin or other Opposition parties. I urge him to spend his time telling us what he is doing to tackle homelessness. Renters, people at risk of homelessness and people who are homeless deserve this. The Minister should spend his time in that way. He should not reduce this to some sort of Punch and Judy show back and forth by spending most of his time attacking people in the Opposition. He should take responsibility for his role and tell us what he is doing to fix this incredibly serious crisis.

The tenant in situ scheme is one of the proposals the Minister brought forward to deal with this. Deputies from across the House have raised a number of serious issues with the tenant in situ scheme and I had been hoping the Minister would have addressed some of them in detail in his comments this evening. He has not done that. It is a pity. All of us have been hearing from renters and from landlords facing lots of problems trying to access the scheme. Before the decision was announced not to extend the eviction ban, the Minister had told the Oireachtas housing committee that the targets for the tenant in situ scheme this year would be for 1,500 homes. He said that these targets were simply baselines, they were minimum targets and they were to be exceeded. Since then, when the decision not to extend the eviction ban was announced, the Government announced 1,500 tenant in situ homes as the target for this year with some fanfare, as if this was some sort of new proposal when it had already been announced by the Minister. Since then, the Government has yet again announced 1,500 tenant in situ as the target and repeated what the Minister has been saying all along, that it is a minimum that should be exceeded. We have had three iterations of exactly the same target with nothing new in it. With all that huffing, puffing and bluster we have not seen that target increase and it needs to increase. The Minister can smile all he wants, but this is deadly serious. There are people who are worried and sick in the pit of their stomachs about what is going to happen to them. The Minister can smile it off all he wants.

We need what is the situation in most European countries, where people who pay their rent cannot be evicted from their home. That is what applies in most European countries. That is what happens in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland. What is wrong with the rental sector in all those countries that they are able to do this? Why can we not do it? Some of these countries have much bigger private rental sectors than us, ones that are thriving, yet they have better protections for renters who pay the rent. The conversation in those countries around evictions is totally different. They are not talking about no-fault evictions for people who pay their rent. Their conversation is about what measures they can put in place to help renters who fall behind in their rental payments so they are not evicted, and how they can protect people from being evicted into homelessness. Some of those countries do not allow someone to be evicted into homelessness even if they have fallen behind in their rental payments. The state, the government and the local authorities help renters if they have fallen behind. They do not put the whole burden on landlords. They help with payment plans and all of these things. That is the kind of conversation we should be having to reduce the number of people who are becoming homeless.

The Minister has not been listening to the Opposition on this. He has not been listening to housing experts or to those who are working with homeless people and supporting them. I would hope he would listen, at least, to renters. I want to read him a few direct, personal testimonies from renters who are worried sick. They have posted on uplift.ie.

Sinéad from Dublin says:

I am renting this house for over 12 years with my two teenage children. We are being evicted in October. My whole life is changed. We have nobody to turn to. We are going to be homeless.

Eileen says:

My mother is due to be evicted in April. She is broken, anxious, and fearful of the unknown. At the age of 50 and on her own, what is she supposed to do? Mental health problems, back problems and I'm only in a bedsit so can't take her in. Where will she go?

Tony says:

I am 68 [...] and renting for over 10 years. Mine is a no-fault eviction due in April. Of approximately 1,600 houses in [the town where I live], almost 1,000 are second homes, occupied for perhaps one month each year. Of the 26 homes in my estate, four are lived in year-round. The rest sit empty. I have little doubt that will happen to my home too.

Rachel says:

My older brother was made homeless because of a house fire. He's been on the housing list for years. He's had to resort to squatting rather than face the streets. I can't put him up as my family is already in an overcrowded situation with three adults and a toddler in a two-bedroomed house. My younger brother got his eviction notice a couple of weeks ago. We were all waiting on tender-hooks to see what way the government would vote on the eviction ban. Now we know. They voted for my younger brother to be evicted and now I'll have two homeless brothers instead of one.

John says:

There are very few rental properties in Donegal. Any available are unaffordable. Alongside the mica problem and rising interest rates, finding a home is near impossible. Reliable families who pay their rent are being made homeless.

Marie says:

I'm due to be evicted on the 1st of September. I've emailed hundreds of landlords. My nerves are shattered. I've been put on antidepressants as this is driving me insane.

Lorraine says:

I'm single parent with a 20-year-old daughter with autism. We have nowhere to go if our eviction is enforced.

Sarah says:

I'm facing eviction due to my landlord selling in order to cash in on rising house prices. I've a good job and I pay my rent.

Sharon says:

I am feeling very scared. I cannot sleep. I have nowhere to go and I am on an invalidity pension. I have been living here for 11 years with my husband and son. I feel sick every time I hear the news. Government, if you are listening to this do not throw us out onto the streets and under the bus.

Marie says:

We have been renting in the same location for 16 years and are at risk of losing our home. We cannot find anything we can afford and honestly I do not know what we are going to do.

Those are some of the voices of renters asking the Government to take a different approach. All they are asking the Government to do is to do what is done in most European countries. Can it accept the principle that renters who pay their rent should not face eviction? That is the humane situation that applies in most of our neighbouring countries. Why can that not apply here? Why can the Government not take a different approach and remove the worry, stress and trauma from those renters? Instead of spending time in here attacking the Opposition, can it spend time answering that question? That is what people who are affected by this want. It is affecting them in the gut of their stomach. People are extremely worried about what is going to happen to them, their families and their children. They want to hear why the Government cannot do that. If it is not going to do it, what is it doing? Is it lifting heaven and earth to stop them becoming homeless? They do not want to hear the Government batting back and forth and giving out about other political parties. They want to hear what the Minister is doing to stop them becoming homeless and address this.

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this Bill. We are happy to support it. If it gets to the next stage, we would propose it is amended because we in People Before Profit have long held, as Deputy O'Callaghan, who obviously shares the same opinion, said, that people who pay rent and have done nothing wrong deserve security of tenure and under no circumstances should be evicted when they have done nothing wrong. That is our review. It is not just about the emergency, although that is the most imminent danger. In the current situation, a notice to quit or eviction makes a person very likely to end up homeless.

Approximately 750,000 men, women and children live in private rented accommodation in this country. Why should they deserve less security than others? Why do they deserve less security than renters in the vast majority of countries in the rest of Europe? Why should they be second class citizens when it comes to fighting for something that we were fighting British landlords over when we were under British rule? A major contributory factor to the Irish revolution was the fight for fixity of tenure. Yet, more than 100 years on, in a supposedly independent State, this Government does not believe that 750,000 people have the right to security of tenure.

We are debating whether there should be a sticking plaster, but what about the fundamental question? Why should people who pay their rent ever have the threat of eviction hanging over them? The answer is they should not. The Government, in a cold-hearted and cruel decision, has, by lifting the ban, made a decision to allow thousands of people to be evicted in the short-term. More generally, the Government believes it is okay for hundreds of thousands of people to have the constant insecurity and fear of possible eviction hanging over their heads when they have done nothing wrong. It is absolutely horrendous.

People Before Profit passed Bills in 2016 and 2018 against all no-fault evictions and another Bill to stop the Government lifting the Covid eviction ban. We had a Bill passed a month ago in the House against lifting the current eviction ban until the housing emergency is over, not that the Government cares what decisions happen. When Bills or motions are passed by the Opposition, the Government simply dismisses and ignores them.

That leads me to be most important thing I want to say, because I do not think the Government is listening. It has clearly set out its stall that the interests of landlords, wealth asset management companies, vulture funds and people who are profiting from the housing misery of others are more important than the rights of tenants and others who are affected in different ways by the housing crisis.

Our view is that at this stage people need to get out on the streets and protest. On a day which is traditionally a day for jokes, it is a terrifying prospect and reality that thousands of people may end up without a roof over their heads. They need to assemble outside the Dáil at 1 p.m. at the cost of living coalition demonstration. I hope there will be thousands and thousands of people at the demonstration, not just those who are immediately threatened with eviction but all of those who live in private rented accommodation, have been on housing lists for a decade or more and are working hard and paying their taxes but are bringing home an income that could not possibly hope to afford the rents that are being charged or the extortionate house prices.

The biggest residential development in the State is in Cherrywood in my area. It comprises 8,000 houses, the first of which have been drip fed onto the market by Hines, an American-based wealth asset management company. Properties are being rented at €2,600 a month. People would need an after-tax income of over €31,000 just to put a roof over their head in one of those developments. Who has that kind of money? That is before people pay their bills and is more than the after-tax income of the average worker. It is absolutely shocking. It is profiteering while others face homelessness and housing misery.

I want to ask about the Government's mitigation measures. The Government was dragged kicking and screaming into introducing the tenant in situ scheme by those of us who proposed it. I refer to the cost rental option. For those that are over the threshold, will there be an immediate instruction regarding its details for local authorities? At the moment they have no clue about it. I find that remarkable.

In a speech the Taoiseach made in Brussels, he alluded to a case I have raised repeatedly. He said that judges do not want to evict people in reference to a case I raised with him. I was in court with a family who were evicted last Friday from the house they have lived in all their lives. The judge gave them a six-month stay, but legally felt compelled to evict that working family with children. They were told by the local authority that they were not eligible for the cost rental scheme and that there was no such scheme. We spoke to approved housing bodies and so on.

Are the details of the scheme going to be released? Will local authorities be given clear instruction that the scheme is to commence and to do things on a proactive basis rather than looking for excuses not to take action? We need that commitment and a lot more. We need to protest against this rotten decision. In its mitigation measures, the Government should at least give details to local authorities so that they have some chance of making a difference.

Deputy Mick Barry

There are 3,000 households with notices to quit against their names. The Government has fired the starting gun for those evictions to begin this weekend. Where are people going to go? Nobody knows for certain. The Taoiseach wore a cloak of certainty when he said last week that the majority of people will not knock on the door of homeless services for emergency accommodation. I suspect he is probably right. Why would they go to homeless services? What they will do in the main is beg friends and family to put them up, even if it is only for a couple of weeks.

They will keep their fingers crossed that they can get sorted within a couple of weeks, but for many of them, they still will not be sorted out within a matter of months. I am certain from the feedback I am getting that at the very least there is a significant minority who will knock on the door of homeless services, and there is a disproportionate number of families with kids who will be forced to do that, because they do not have the space to stay with family and friends. Will the emergency homeless services be able to put people up? In some places they will, but we know that in other places they will not. Some 17 out of 31 councils have said they are full up. This issue is not going to go away. It is going to drag on and re-emerge. We are going to see a situation long before the summertime of families, including those with children, presenting to Garda stations and asking to be put up for the night as they have nowhere to go.

I want to make three points about this. First, I appeal to people who are faced with eviction into homelessness to seriously consider the option of overholding - staying past their due date. It is not a criminal offence. If tenants are in dispute with their landlord the case will go to the Residential Tenancies Board, which could drag on for a considerable period. Second, I appeal to people to join the protest that is taking place this Saturday, and any other protest that is taking place anywhere in the country. The Government needs to continue feeling the pressure on this issue.

This is an issue for individuals in the sense that the stress bears down on individuals and their families, but it must become an issue for communities, where there needs to be a discussion about solidarity and helping one's neighbours. I would love to see a situation where communities would resist these evictions in the weeks and months to come in an organised, peaceful, and disciplined way. I will leave it at that.

Deputy Peter Fitzpatrick

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this very important issue. I will support the amendment Bill today to defer the termination dates of certain tenancies to 31 January 2024, in order to mitigate the risk of homelessness. I wish to start off with some figures. There was a 47% increase in the number of notices to quit in the private rental sector between quarter 1 and quarter 2 of 2022. Some 7,539 eviction notices were issued from January to September 2022. Last Friday, there was no emergency accommodation in Louth - no hotel rooms, no bed and breakfast accommodation, nothing. A total of 172 people presented as homeless to Louth County Council last month, even before the eviction ban is due to be lifted. Last Friday, five properties were listed on daft.ie to rent in Louth. At a minimum, 96 families in Louth face eviction in four days' time. These figures are not just figures. They are families, children, people from all walks of life.

Shelter is a fundamental right. In the last week, the Government has rhymed off its achievements regarding housing and the supply of housing and quoted building numbers, but on the ground, rental accommodation is not accessible and homeless accommodation is at breaking point. One young man from my constituency contacted me because he is in fear of imminent eviction. He was given notice to vacate before the ban came in and is not eligible for the proposed tenant in situ scheme. After coming through foster care, he is currently in a HAP property and has access to two young siblings. This young man is an apprentice electrician earning €400 a week. Although he has been searching, he cannot locate an alternative property, unless he pays nearly €2,000. Louth County Council has no accommodation for him. His only alternative is to go to the Simon Community.

The extension of the legislation is absolutely necessary due to the ongoing acute supply constraints in the residential rental sector and the increasing number of people presenting as homeless. In October, on Second Stage of the Bill, I said that while the emergency Bill provides short-term assistance, the long-term answers to the housing and accommodation challenges remain. I said that the homelessness figures will continue to rise after the eviction ban has concluded unless the core problem of the lack of affordable homes is addressed. Three weeks ago, the Tánaiste said that the Government has made no decision regarding the eviction ban extension; therefore, the measures proposed and being pushed by the Government to counteract the lifting of the eviction ban, and the increase in homelessness, are at most three-week-old ideas, which are doubtful to come to fruition by 1 April. In fact, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage confirmed the "first refusal" option will not be in place by 1 April, as it requires legislative change. There is no clear timeline for its introduction.

The Government's planned measures are already being hampered. The Irish Planning Institute, IPI, which represents more than 1,000 private and public sector planners, has rejected and called into question sweeping new laws to reform the planning system, which were supposed to accelerate building in the face of the worsening housing crisis. The legislation, according to the IPI, includes contentious measures to bar residents' associations from taking judicial review cases against planning decisions in the High Court. The IPI also stated the draft laws could lead to further "unforeseen" planning problems if they are pushed through the Dáil and Seanad. On top of this, the Government's plan to free up an additional 12,000 rental properties has been dealt a blow last week, as the EU delayed plans for a new Airbnb register until the end of the year. Apart from the measures being ill defined, the Government is passing the buck to under-staffed and under-resourced council personnel who are not equipped to take on all these schemes. Louth County Council does amazing work, but it does not have the capacity to get on top of these proposed solutions and have them accessible by 1 April.

Rents in Ireland are among the highest in Europe, while security for renters is among the lowest in Europe, especially when it comes to evictions and security of tenure. We still have no-fault evictions, which are alien to most other European countries. The winter ban was a ban on no-fault evictions. This brought us in line with most other countries in the EU. A tenant may also be evicted if the landlord wishes to change the use of the property or carry out significant renovations. None of these were valid reasons for eviction under the recently overturned eviction ban. I do not wish to demonise landlords. I acknowledge that in some situations the dwelling is required for occupancy by a landlord or a member of his or her family. However, every organisation, political party and campaign group with a vested interest in this issue were against scrapping the ban, except the landlords' lobby and those who had something to gain. In an attempt to keep landlords in the rental market, rather than recognising the right of every citizen to an adequate standard of living, the Government is siding with landlords in the hope that they will alleviate its shortfall in housing.

The fact is that the number of people being made homeless is increasing, while the supply of houses is lacking. Not a day passes without someone coming into my constituency office who is homeless. I commend the homelessness section in Louth County Council. However, with the number of homeless at its highest, emergency accommodation is at breaking point, and with more than 350 international protection applicants homeless, the extension of the legislation is vital. People are being crucified with the cost of living, energy costs, the severe housing shortage, and spiralling rents. I fundamentally agree with the principle of every person having access to housing and, as such, I agree with the extension of the measures in the Bill.

Deputy Peadar Tóibín

Last week, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party voted against a humane and common sense Aontú amendment, which sought protection for cohorts of vulnerable people in the context of eviction. The parties voted against a tenant or a member of his or her family who has a disability being protected from eviction. The parties voted against a tenant or a member of his or her family who has a terminal illness, a cancer diagnosis, who has suffered from a stroke, has advanced heart disease or who suffers from mental health issues being protected from eviction. Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party also voted against a tenant who is pregnant or who has a very young family being protected from eviction. The Government even voted against pensioners, people in the later years of their lives, being protected against eviction. Many of those people have no other opportunities for housing and are extremely vulnerable, yet they are exposed by the Government to the worst excesses of the housing crisis. That is an incredible thing, that the Government did not even have the humanity to protect that small cohort of individuals. Indeed, the Government was in fits of laughter during the actual vote that took place on the day.

One of the hardest things to get my head around at the moment is the lack of evidence the Government is providing for its decisions. I have seen no modelling, evidence or information provided at any stage by the Government to show what impact its policy would have on the housing market. No information has been provided by the Government to show that the policy it is pursuing would provide X number of extra homes for rent in the coming two, three, four or five years.

I was involved in a debate with a Minister last Thursday night on RTÉ and the question was put to him over and over again on whether modelling, evidence or any information was given to the Cabinet on the decision it made on this issue. The Minister basically said there was no information or evidence used to support the decision. That is an incredible indictment because it means the Government has made an evidence-free decision on this critical policy that will have such an enormous effect on so many people. Either the Government made a decision on a hunch or it made it on ideology. I have no doubt that ideology played a significant part in this because Fine Gael is the government of laissez-faire. It is the government of the market. It is government of the free hand.

You would imagine that Fianna Fáil and the Green Party might push against this, but unfortunately Fianna Fáil has become an empty ideological husk. It has no core values anymore and is literally blown in any direction its coalition partners take it. The Green Party has retreated from everything other than climate and the culture wars. It has retreated from the bread-and-butter issues affecting so many. It has put up the white flag of surrender on this.

The figures relating to the devastating problem that exists speak for themselves. Through freedom of information requests Aontú has submitted in the past couple of years, it has found 400 people have died in homelessness in Dublin in the past five years. That does not include those who are rough sleeping. It includes only the homeless in all the emergency accommodation. The figures are not collected anywhere else. In Limerick, for example, we do not know how many die of homelessness, because the Government does not think it important enough to collect the information. This is absolutely startling.

The second issue we know of concerns notices to quit. In a county like mine, Meath, there are 127 such notices and 31 houses available to rent through daft.ie, yet there are zero emergency accommodation beds in the local authority area. That is replicated right across the country. If the Minister does the maths, he will see the figures simply do not add up. A number of the people affected will end up homeless and in tents, and they will also end up going to the Garda station looking for protection. There are 11,450 such people throughout the State, well in excess of 3,000 of whom are children, yet we know there are 4,500 notices to quit on top of this figure.

The pool of available rental accommodation units in the State amounts to fewer than 1,200. The Minister's decision will have a material effect in just three days on the welfare and safety of so many people. There are 25,000 short-term rental units available in the State through Airbnb, yet the Government sits on its hands and does nothing with this pool of available homes.

Deputy Mattie McGrath

There are four hours of debate on this matter scheduled this week. We almost had another two-hour debate only Government statements were removed. If talk could build houses, we would have plenty of them.

There are some who prioritise implementing a recovery plan for An Bord Pleanála with immediate effect. Severe backlogs in An Bord Pleanála are hampering the construction industry's ability to deliver much-needed housing. We can talk all we like about eviction and eviction bans, but we will go nowhere if we do not have the supply.

On reforming the planning process through legislative change, the draft planning and development Bill 2022 presents an opportunity to enact legislative change concerning the process itself and the need to reduce lost time on site. Bureaucratic inefficiencies play a large role in slowing down the provision of new units to the market. Several short-term, non-legislative reforms could have an impact, with minimal work required on the part of the Government. That is simple. Why the Government cannot see the reforms needed, I do not know. It has special advisers.

I have to lay some of the blame on high-up Department officials and the Secretaries General at the top because they have been in office with the plethora of recent housing Ministers. We were promised the sun, moon and stars but nothing has been delivered. Who is holding them accountable?

With regard to increasing residential housing targets, there is a disconnect between the national planning framework and Housing for All regarding unit output that is compounded by conflicting messages and the wrong population projections in both policies. This must be addressed immediately. We have too many conflicts and vested interests, and there is a lethargic, inept and feeble attempt at building houses. There is plenty of spin and there are plenty of announcements. The Labour Party announced this week the building of a million houses. People are sick, sore, sorry and tired of that.

Deputy Michael Collins

The Irish housing crisis has become a contentious political issue in recent years, with successive governments failing to address the problem effectively. Despite the current Government's promises to take action and implement policy changes to tackle the crisis, the lack of focus and commitment has resulted in limited progress.

One of the main reasons for the Government's failure to address the housing crisis is a lack of political will. Housing policy is often complex, with many stakeholders involved, including developers, landlords, tenants and local authorities. It requires long-term commitment and sustained investment by Government, which have been lacking in recent years.

Another issue is the lack of a coherent strategy to address the crisis. Various initiatives have been launched, such as the Government's flagship housing scheme, Housing for All. The approach has been piecemeal and lacking in ambition. The scheme has been criticised for being too focused on private developers, with little emphasis on social housing that is urgently needed to address the homelessness crisis.

Additionally, the Government has failed to fund the housing sector adequately, with investment levels falling short of what is needed to address the scale of the problem. There has been a reluctance to invest in public housing, with the Government opting to rely on private developers to provide affordable homes. However, this approach has been inadequate, with private developers failing to build enough homes to meet demand, resulting in spiralling rents.

In the small amount of time I have left, I must talk about the issues that affect the constituency of Cork South-West. Genuine young people trying to start out in life might get a little bit of a loan from a bank but are refused planning permission, one after another after another. There is a scenic route and a report must be submitted on every kind of farcical thing that those concerned want to talk about, including worms, pigs and snails.

I would like to criticise Sinn Féin even though I will be supporting this motion. I would like to criticise the attack of Sinn Féin and the Labour Party on Independents. You cannot tar everybody with the same brush. I stand over my record in this Dáil, and neither Sinn Féin nor the Labour Party will dictate to me. I did not support the Government last week and got criticised as if I were one of the Independents who did.

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae

I have a problem with this proposed eviction ban, as I did with individuals last week. I see that it is more hurtful to tenants who hope to be housed. I regret that Deputy Daly, from Kerry, chose to single me out for not voting for Sinn Féin's motion last week. This measure will only hurt the rental sector beyond repair. We have to be very careful not to do any further harm because a lot of harm has been done already. I am not programmed to come in here and do what someone else tells me. I am programmed by the people of Kerry who elected me, and those who have houses and are getting out of the market – full stop.

From my door to a point 12 miles down the road, there are 45 houses vacant. Why did someone not do something or report on them, or why was someone not sent to ask the people concerned to enter the market? People are afraid they will not get their houses back, given all this talk in here. It is just one step behind a full CPO job. I was never for CPOs and am not now but I can see this is where we are going. They are doing it in the UK and Italy but I am not for that and never will be. We have to work by consensus. A person who owns a house has the right to do whatever he or she wants with it whenever he or she wants. I have to stand for fair play.

Deputy Michael Healy-Rae

It is ironic that we are debating housing again here this evening when An Bord Pleanála is being investigated and is before the courts, which matter I will obviously not get into. However, it has to be highlighted that there have been many cases over the years of inspectors deciding, on looking at planning files, to grant planning permission for various developments only for the applications to be dashed and destroyed by a group of people – it might comprise only three – at ad hoc, informal meetings up in Dublin. Reasons for refusal might emerge only over the following months or years. Only then would we find out more about why the group was doing what it was doing, but it was not helping us in having planning permissions granted.

I welcome the changes to the grant scheme to do up old properties. I was always looking for a grant to be made available to bring old, disused houses into the market. When a scheme was introduced, the Government made a mess of it, as it has done with a pile of things. A good idea was given to it and it made a mess of it by saying the houses could not be rented out or sold. I very much appreciate it when people realise they are wrong. The Government realised it was wrong and is now changing the scheme and saying a property can be rented out.

Of course that is great. It will be work for the local builder, if there are any local builders left because of their demonisation. People in the Opposition seem to have a hang-up about builders and developers. They hate and despise them and do not want them to be in our villages and communities at all. They think the houses will build themselves and the roofs will repair themselves. They are down on anybody who wants to do anything good. The attack on those involved in Airbnb is ridiculous. The Government is putting more people out of the market. The continued demonisation of property owners is wrong.

Deputy Richard O'Donoghue

I have been a builder all my life. I have been building from when I was a teenager to today when I am over 50. Since I have been elected to this House, I have been trying to give advice to the Government regarding the shortfall and why we cannot build houses. The Minister was in Limerick recently and we went around all the places where he was announcing houses. Every one of the contractors we met told us the sewerage systems are at maximum capacity and they cannot build more.

I was in Offaly today where they are going to retrofit two and three-bedroom houses. Certain members of the Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Heritage and Local Government, including Deputy Ó Broin, did not turn up today to see these retrofitted buildings even though the committee was there. They did not turn up to see the ash dieback in Tipperary the other day. They were invited but did not turn up. Well, I turned up, a member of the Rural Independent Group. I voted against the Government last week and was then criticised by Sinn Féin. Deputy Ó Broin spoke about how some Independents denied it.

I know what is wrong. What is wrong is we have no infrastructure, which is a failure of this Government and previous governments. We can build houses in Limerick. Give us the infrastructure and we can build them. We could have them this year, next year and the year after but there is no infrastructure because it was never invested in. Uisce Éireann has taken billions but has delivered nothing for the area. Now the Government is going back to the local authorities and is going to give them the money to upgrade the systems themselves through the Department because of the failure of Uisce Éireann. For God's sake, will the Government just listen? We cannot build houses in this country without infrastructure so how can the Government put people out on the road if it has no infrastructure and no alternatives? Listen to people like me. We understand it. We build it. We live it every day. Listen to the people with experience not the people who criticise builders. I am one. I do not build houses but I help people to build houses. I help to get planning permission and I help to get infrastructure for Ireland.

Deputy Michael McNamara

I have to say that this is one of the most depressing debates I have attended in this House during this term or my previous term. On the one hand, the Government says everything is fine and lists a load of measures. I accept that all of those measures have been taken and everything is not fine. They are not effective enough. Clearly a lot more needs to be done. We have a housing crisis. People were annoyed when the President pointed out the blindingly obvious. I suppose the emperor always gets annoyed when somebody points out he is naked. We do not have enough houses.

It is not just the fault of this Government. It is the fault of governments going back to 2000 and before that when a decision was made that the State did not need to develop houses. It is not necessarily the fault of this Government that there are not enough houses but it will be the fault of this Government if the next Government faces a housing crisis, which it will unless we start developing houses now.

On the other hand, from the legislation tonight, it appears Sinn Féin has one solution and one solution only, which is to stop private landlords serving notices to quit, even in circumstances where they want to move back into a house, even after letting their house out for a particular period because, under the Residential Tenancies Act, it is unlawful to have time-limited tenancies, and even where they are moving abroad or to another part of the country and wish to let out their houses while they are away, which is beneficial to society because we need to encourage people to let out houses rather than leave them empty. The effect of an ongoing eviction ban, as it is called, which is emotive, or an inability to serve notice of termination for such landlords will be that they will not let out their houses.

Instead of tinkering around the edges of the Residential Tenancies Act, which is what the Sinn Féin Bill does, we need fundamental reform of the Act. We need to acknowledge that this Act was brought in at a time when most landlords were Irish-resident and, while they may have owned numerous houses, were individuals. Now we have huge corporate entities moving in and buying whole developments.

An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach (Deputy Sean Sherlock)

The Deputy's time is up.

Deputy Michael McNamara

I think I have a few more minutes. We need to differentiate when it comes to people letting out their house on a short-term basis, and it was always on a short-term basis, and who need to move back in or even people who had enough money to buy an apartment so their children could live in it when they went to college so they would not have to commute from Clare to Dublin or Clare to Cork. I went to college in Cork. It simply would not have been possible to commute. I do not think it would have been particularly beneficial to anybody. We need to differentiate between this group and huge real estate funds.

Planning is a significant issue. Deputy Harkin and I put forward an amendment to the Government motion to the effect that, in the very short term, planning would not be required for temporary housing developments or for converting houses back into stock, which was something the Minister did with regard to Ukrainians and can be done with regard to everyone else in need of housing.

Deputy Marian Harkin

I support this Bill to extend the eviction ban. However, this is anything but straightforward and, sometimes in this House, we have to vote for the lesser of two evils. Landlords should not be put in the position where they have to take at least part responsibility for dealing with the housing crisis. On the other hand, we know 4,700 evictions notices have been served and many of those tenants will struggle to find any accommodation and some will be homeless. Why can I say that? I can say that because 17 local authorities have said they have no emergency accommodation while six have said they have very limited emergency accommodation. This leaves just three local authorities with any reasonable amount of emergency accommodation. According to daft.ie, this evening there are now just 15 places to let in Sligo, which is six fewer than were available a week ago. In Donegal, the number is 57, which is the same as last week, while the number in Roscommon is 12, which is one less than a week ago. There is one place to rent in Leitrim, three fewer than this time last week.

Like every other Deputy in this House, constituents have been calling my office. One lady who contacted me has two autistic children. She has to leave her home in April. Where is she going to go? Even if she is one of the really lucky ones to get into emergency accommodation, how are her children going to attend their special classes? We know how important that is. In case anybody thinks this is a problem for other people - people out there - I know somebody working in this building who will be homeless from 11 April. Despite months and months of searching for rental accommodation, this person has to leave Dublin. That shows homelessness can happen to anybody.

However, the issue is not black and white and I believe some amendments are necessary. I support what Deputy McNamara said. I also believe that an extension to the eviction ban is needed because the Government needs time so that we are not in the same position again with a winter eviction at the end of next January. However, I also believe we need to support landlords because tens of thousands of them are leaving the market. They are leaving because of the tax situation and the burden of regulation. We proposed a tax rate of 25% for small landlords. The RTB needs a serious revamp. It is slow and bureaucratic and needs further significant resources. Most landlords simply cannot take the hassle anymore and are getting out.

We also need an amendment whereby if a landlord or a member of his or her family who lives with him or her needs to acquire the rental property to live in, that flexibility is there. I support Deputy McNamara's amendment on flexibility within the Planning and Development Act. We already have it in place for the provision of accommodation for Ukrainian refugees. We need to put it in place for everybody.

An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach (Deputy Sean Sherlock)

I apologise to Deputy McNamara. I think I tried to do him out of a minute inadvertently.

Deputy Michael McNamara

I thought it was another case of the Labour Party telling me how to vote or speak but I accept it was not the case.

Deputy Joan Collins

I thank Deputy Ó Broin for putting forward this legislation. It is now clear to me the Government's policy is to allow more people to become homeless than we ever thought possible. The Government has not put in place any real or tangible supports to accommodate people who will be made homeless after the winter eviction ban is lifted on 1 April.

It even voted down protections for renters with long-term illnesses, young children or several other vulnerabilities. These are not mistakes. This is not incompetence. They are clear policy decisions that the Government will not protect people from homelessness and it will not build enough houses because it represents big property developers, speculators and bankers but not ordinary working people. Government members stand up here and talk proudly about how they have built more social houses this year than any since 1975. That is 48 years that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Labour Party and the Green Party have stood over a policy of not building social housing. That is 48 years when it had a policy of selling off council houses to tenants and did not rebuild to match the sell-off of our stock. It did not plan for the numbers of people who would need social housing up to now. It has failed those people but it knew exactly what it was doing. After all this, and all the policies that sacrificed people’s ability to have a home to the market and the rich, it now has the nerve to remove one of the few barriers left to protect thousands from being evicted into homelessness. The Government created this crisis. It planned it and voted for it every step of the way. Now it is voting to put people into homelessness. A simple acid test for a government is not to put people purposely and deliberately into homelessness. This Government just failed that test. But there are not many tests that the Government does pass: record homelessness; record waiting times for hospitals; record numbers of people on trolleys; and record lack of services. There is not a problem the Government has met that it has not made worse. The problem is that the Government represents the people who make money from these crises. It represents the wealth and these are not crises for the wealthy. It is how the Government makes their money.

The country is rapidly approaching breaking point and the Government’s time is up. It is time to get out and allow people to elect a government that represents them and not the bankers, developers and everyone who got us into this crisis.

I want to tell people that if they are facing notices to quit into homelessness to overhold. Please overhold and contact those people who will help them to do that. Please join the Cost of Living Coalition at the Dáil at 1 p.m. this Saturday to show this Government that we will not take this lying down.

Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Deputy Kieran O'Donnell)

There have been a large number of contributions and I acknowledge them. The Government will oppose the Bill which Sinn Féin has tabled. The Minister has moved a reasoned amendment to that effect.

If someone is watching this debate and they are about to be made homeless what do they want to know? I will deal with what I believe are the facts. Why are we not supporting Sinn Féin’s Bill? It is because we fundamentally disagree that the eviction ban should be continued. We were quite honest when we announced the ban that it would conclude at the end of March. We are basically going with that commitment. Sinn Féin's Bill could have consequences. We believe that too many private landlords are leaving the market. People have spoken about them. Nine out of ten landlords in Ireland are small landlords. They are not the big landlords. Some 13,500 of them left the market last year. That is too many to lose.

Deputy McNamara said we do not have enough houses. I agree. We all agree with that. We have a plan. We built 30,000 units last year. We had over 9,000 social housing units back in 2021. Deputy Joan Collins might not agree but we have built a significant amount of social houses again this year and it is the largest number since 1975. We believe that the Sinn Féin Bill would bring about three times more people receiving eviction notices than now. It does not allow for someone selling a house because they are in financial distress or someone coming back from abroad to reclaim their house or people who bought a house to send their family to college.

If people get an eviction notice, what is there for them at the moment? The first port of call is to go to their local authority-----

Deputy Martin Browne

They do not have anything.

Deputy Patricia Ryan

There is nothing there.

Deputy Kieran O'Donnell

-----not to the Garda Station. They should go to the local authority. If they go to the local authority and they are a HAP or a RAS tenant, there is a tenant in situ scheme. From the feedback we are getting from the local authorities, they will well exceed the 1,500 we put forward for this year. That scheme is there. We want landlords to come forward and sell their houses with tenants in situ who are on HAP and RAS to the local authorities.

Deputy Martin Browne

The Government might want that but it is not happening.

Deputy Kieran O'Donnell

It is happening. Allow me to go through the points because it is the public out there who are homeless and I want them to know what is there rather than us shouting and roaring across the Chamber.

Second, if someone is above the social housing income limit, there are two schemes coming on board now. Deputy Boyd Barrett referred to one. The bespoke scheme will come into operation on 1 April and the first opportunity to purchase will also come into being on 1 April on an administrative basis. The Minister wrote to the local authorities last Friday on foot of decisions in relation to the vote here last Wednesday that these measures would be implemented. They are required to come back to the Minister by 31 March, only days away, to give plans on the numbers of houses that they have in train for tenant in situ and what their future plans are. Deputy Cian O’Callaghan also spoke about tenant in situ. He spoke about repeat announcements. We are telling local authorities that we want them to exceed the target as high as they can. We want no one to be homeless.

I spoke about the two schemes, namely the bespoke scheme and the first opportunity to purchase. We want landlords to come forward to local authorities. The first port of call for landlords who want to sell their house should be the council. The first port of call for tenants is the council regardless of whether they are HAP, RAS or a private tenant. If a landlord wishes to sell his or her house to a tenant in situ who is above the social housing limit, they should go to the local authority. The first port of call for someone who wants to sell their house to the council where there is a tenant who is above the social housing limit is the local authority. The funding is there to purchase these homes. We want to keep people out of homelessness. That is very important. We are looking at where the RTB would make tenants and landlords aware of all the various schemes available.

On delivery, we want to deliver a lot more houses than we have built to date but we have made a major start. Sinn Féin comes in here but outrage is not a substitute for hard policies. I have not seen one tangible, viable proposition from Sinn Féin.

Deputy Martin Browne

Because you did not buy his book.

Deputy Kieran O'Donnell

It has brought forward a Bill. Ironically it had elements after it had eventually seen the light on a staggered approach to eviction notices. But we fundamentally disagree on extending the eviction moratorium because we believe that we must have a functioning market. You have to have private landlords. You cannot have a situation where they are not there. If they are leaving the market, tenants lose out because of it. The only measure it did bring forward was a €400 tax on landlords.

Deputy Tóibín again made reference to the private rental sector. I agree with Deputies Mattie McGrath, Michael Collins and Danny Healy-Rae. We need a functioning rental market. I take the point raised by Deputy Michael Healy-Rae about development and looking at planning legislation. I take Deputy O'Donoghue's point about infrastructure. On Deputy McNamara's point, we can look at the planning laws. As he is probably aware, properties over shops that are zoned as commercial do not require planning. This is something we can look at. I take Deputy Harkin's point. The RTB legislation is being reviewed.

I will finish on this point. People are speaking about local authorities not having emergency beds in place. We are working with the local authorities on 2,000 additional beds. Some 200 of these are already in place. We expect a further 1,000 to be in place by quarter 2. We are asking the local authorities to go out and secure these places. We do not want anyone to be homeless. We have put practical measures in place.

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

Some 2,000 extra emergency beds. Do the Minister's officials know about this?

Deputy Kieran O'Donnell

We have a housing policy. Deputy Ó Broin might not agree with it, but I am more concerned that the people who are homeless know that these measures are in place. The advice to people is to go to their local authority in all circumstances. We are putting the resources in place to ensure people are prevented from going into homelessness.

An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach (Deputy Sean Sherlock)

I thank the Minister of State.

Deputy Kieran O'Donnell

To conclude-----

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

The Minister of State is out of time.

Deputy Kieran O'Donnell

I ask the House to support the amendment tabled by the Minister in which he requests that the House decline to give the Bill a Second Reading consequent on a motion agreed on 22 March last.

An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach (Deputy Sean Sherlock)

We move to a Sinn Féin slot. I call Deputy Funchion.

Deputy Kathleen Funchion

I thank my colleague, Deputy Ó Broin, for bringing forward this Bill. Exactly seven years and one week ago, I made my first speech in the Dáil. That speech was on the housing crisis. When I was preparing for tonight, I felt I could have dusted off that speech and used it again but for the fact that matters are an awful lot worse. In the intervening seven years - the Minister of State might be very interested in this - Sinn Féin and its housing spokesperson have introduced countless items of legislation, motions and policy papers. Every year in our alternative budgets, Deputy Ó Broin, our housing spokesperson since 2016, puts forward our vision for housing. All of that is there, easily accessible, for the Minister of State to look at.

I thank An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach. Given that people are being advised to go to them for everything, is there any chance that local authorities will be provided with additional in staff in order, particularly because, as matters stand, they are totally overburdened? I cannot describe how frustrating it is, seven years after my first speech in this House, that not only are we still in the same housing crisis but that it has become far worse.

It seems like an obvious observation to make but housing affects all aspects of a person's life. I genuinely do not think the Government truly understands this. I know Government Deputies have been out this week and last week saying that they are not immune to the plight of people whose families are at the coalface of the housing crisis. It is more the case that many of those Deputies, including the ones in my constituency, are speaking out of both sides of their mouths. Housing affects people who are looking for employment. Many are now assessing whether to take jobs irrespective of whether they are the right jobs for them. The question is whether they can afford accommodation or whether they can even find accommodation near the job. We have seen this in the nursing and education sectors. We have seen scores of young and not-so-young people leaving to go abroad and emigrating. People are choosing college and university based on availability and cost of accommodation. They are not basing their decision on where they would like to study or if it is the right course for them. There are 11 properties for rent in Carlow and 16 in Kilkenny. I will leave it at that because I am out of time.

An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach (Deputy Sean Sherlock)

I am conscious of the Deputies colleagues.

Deputy Thomas Gould

The Tánaiste spoke to the local newspaper in Cork today about the eviction ban. Was he offering advice to the 500 households that are facing eviction next week? No, he was attacking Sinn Féin for making a political issue out of the ending of the eviction ban and the housing crisis. I can tell the Minister of State that I am not playing politics. I know of a single mother who does not know where her child will be going to school after Easter because she does not know where she will be living. I know of a family who have one son doing his college exams and another son doing his leaving certificate. They have not even told their children yet that they are to be out of their house on 15 April because they do not want to bring the stress and worry on them. Can you imagine trying to do your leaving certificate while being homeless? Many families are facing that. Families are consulting the daft.ie website every day. To give the Minister an idea, there are 39 properties listed on daft.ie at a time when 500 households are facing eviction in Cork. I do not know how good he is at maths, but, no matter what way one turns it, 500 does not go into 39.

People are shocked by what the Minister is doing. They cannot believe it. They cannot believe how cruel this Government is or the lack of empathy it is displaying. People are facing being evicted next weekend. Has the Government any concept of the stress, the pressure and devastation that will cause? The Government has accused Sinn Féin of using this as a political football. Is that the only thing the spin doctors and the backroom consultants have to say? It would be more in line for those spin doctors and high-paid advisers to be helping the Minister to deliver homes.

Of the 11,554 people affected, 3,431 are children. I have a direct question for the Minister; two questions actually. Where are they to go next week? How many people must become homeless before the Ministers will admit they are wrong, resign and call a general election? Must it be 4,000 children or must it be 5,000 children? How many children must become homeless before the Government will admit it is wrong?

Deputies

Hear, hear.

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

At the very centre of this legislation is a simple fact: in three days' time, because of the decisions of the Government, very many people, adults and children, will lose the rental properties in which they have been living. The Government has put in place no credible plan to ensure that they have somewhere safe to go. I listened carefully to the Minister and the Minister of State, and I want to respond to each of the claims they made.

The Taoiseach stated earlier today that people will be able to get other rental properties. For seven years straight, the private rental sector has shrunk. We are losing about 7,000 private rental sector properties every single year under this Government. It is simply not the case that people can go and find other rental properties. In fact, one of the most dishonest things the Taoiseach said is that there were thousands of new rental tenancies registered last year. We have a thing called annual registration. Every tenancy has to be reregistered annually and the Taoiseach knows this. We also heard that people could present for emergency accommodation.

We are talking to directors of housing and homeless services across the State who are telling us that even with the additional capacity provided by the cold weather initiative, it is at breaking point and will very soon be full. It may even be full before we get into April. We are told we have a target of 1,300 tenant in situ homes - it is not even 1,500 - and that the scheme is working. Unless the rules underpinning that scheme are changed, as we heard from the County and City Management Association and the Department at a meeting on the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage only a week ago, the Government is not going to meet those targets.

I hope it does, and I hope it exceeds them. Given that the Minister has not met a single one of his social and affordable housing targets to date, however, I will not hold my breath.

We are told that tenants can have first refusal to purchase their homes. Please look at the income of the vast majority of private renters; they could not afford to buy the homes if they were made available to them. The legislation underpinning this scheme is not yet in place. The Minister of State misspoke when he suggested that it would be in place in April, as well as the administrative scheme for cost-rental. That is not what the Minister said earlier and the legislation is not even drafted. Then, the Minister of State talked about the cost-rental option being in place on an administrative basis from the end of this week. The approved housing bodies have not been talked to and they do not know how that scheme is going to work, nor do local authorities, nor do tenants. Given the fact it took a year to get the tenant in situ scheme for social housing even beginning to see any purchases, I suspect something similar will happen with this.

The Minister of State said something very interesting. He indicated that it is the public out there who are becoming homeless. He kind of got that wrong. It is the public out there that he and his colleagues are making homeless by lifting this key protection. Over and over again, we have said this is not the core issue. The emergency ban on evictions is only to give the Government breathing space. Contrary to what the Government said both last October and three weeks ago, I set out in a very detailed memo form to the senior Minister the actions that we needed to take during an extended ban on evictions to reduce the pressure on singles and families going into emergency accommodation, to get people out of emergency accommodation more quickly, to increase and accelerate the delivery of social and affordable homes and to use the emergency procurement of planning powers that the Government has at its fingertips but that it is refusing to use in order to combine vacant and derelict properties and new building technologies to generate an additional volume of social and affordable homes above the existing targets to get people out of homelessness. These are things it could have done over the past five months that it has refused to do and that it is not going to do in the time ahead.

The other thing that beggars belief is that Minister after Minister comes in and tells us the plan is working. Yet, not just over the past five or six months, but over the past two and a half years of this Government and seven years of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in government together, what are the facts? They are house prices at record highs and continuing to rise, rents at record highs and continuing to rise, the private rental sector contracting, homelessness increasing and the Government not meeting its social and affordable housing targets, targets that are too low to begin with.

What do we need? We need this crucial protection to be passed, we need the Labour Party’s no-confidence motion in the Government to pass tomorrow and we need a general election. We cannot just keep going on with decade after decade of failed Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael housing policies, failed Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael housing Ministers and ordinary working people having to live with the very real consequences of their decisions. For anybody watching this debate, all they have heard from the Government is that it is going to make them homeless from this Friday, this Saturday and this Sunday. Shame on the Government. This Bill is crucial. This Bill should be passed. I commend it to the House.

Amendment put.

An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach (Deputy Sean Sherlock)

In accordance with Standing Order 80(2), the division is deferred until the weekly division time tomorrow.

Dáil Éireann debate - Tuesday, 28 Mar 2023