Housing and Homelessness: Motion [Private Members]

An Ceann Comhairle

This is a motion regarding housing and homelessness. I nearly said "hopelessness".

An Ceann Comhairle

I suppose not. I call on Deputy Ó Broin or another Sinn Féin Deputy to move the motion and I welcome the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, who is taking the debate.

— Fine Gael have now been in Government for 12 years, propped up by Fianna Fáil for the past seven years, and Darragh O'Brien TD has been the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for three years; and

— during this time the housing crisis has deepened, and is the biggest threat to Ireland's economic and societal well-being;

further notes with extreme concern that:

— adult homelessness has increased by 44 per cent and child homelessness has increased by 39 per cent since this Government was formed, meaning last month the total number of people in Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage-funded emergency accommodation was 12,441, including 3,699 children;

— rents are up 23 per cent since this Government was formed, and average rents across the State are now €1,507, with new rents in Dublin at €2,063, while thousands of renters have received eviction notices; and

— according to the latest Residential Tenancies Board Q4 2022 Rent Index Report, there was a 7.6 per cent increase in new rents across the State in 2022, and 13 counties have experienced double digit rent increases;

acknowledges that the housing emergency is inhibiting the capacity of businesses to expand, limiting potential investment in respect of new jobs and more importantly adding to the recruitment and retention crisis and delivery of key public services across the State;

condemns that:

— the Government have missed their social and affordable housing targets for three years;

— the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has underspent its social and affordable capital budget by €1 billion; and

— the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage capital budget for 2023 is behind profile by 28 per cent as of June;

resolves that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil cannot solve the housing crisis that they have created, and only a change of Government which prioritises the delivery of public housing can fix the housing emergency; and

calls for:

— a three-year ban on rent increases, and the creation of a refundable tax credit to put a month's rent back in every private renter's pocket; and

— an emergency response to stem the rise in homelessness, including:

— a temporary reintroduction of the ban on no fault evictions;

— an expansion of the tenant-in-situ scheme for social and cost rental tenants;

— the use of emergency planning and procurement powers combined with new building technologies; and

— vacant homes to provide an additional stream of public housing to reduce the number of people in emergency accommodation.

The Ceann Comhairle's Freudian slip was not wrong. Due to the housing policies of the Minister opposite us and his Cabinet colleagues, it increasingly feels like a case of hopelessness for many people.

I want to remind the people listening that Fine Gael has been in government for 11 years, that Fianna Fáil has been propping it up, either through the confidence and supply arrangement or now through a formal coalition, for seven years, and that the Minister has been in office for more than three years. In all of that time, the housing and homelessness crises have gone from bad to worse. Since the Minister entered into office, house prices across the State have increased by a staggering 25%, and they are still rising. This is according to the latest figures published yesterday. Rents across the State have increased by 23%, but this hides the fact that there are some counties that, in three years, have seen rent increases of 40% or 50%. Probably the greatest symbol of the failure of the Minister and his colleagues is the dramatic rise in the number of children, men and women, including over-55s and over-65s, in emergency accommodation. Official figures from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage tell us that homelessness has increased by 39% since Deputy Darragh O'Brien became Minister and that child homelessness has increased by a staggering 44%.

What does this mean in real terms? Almost 12,700 people are officially classified as homeless. Of course, the Minister knows that the number is much higher, as this figure does not include women and children in Tusla's domestic violence refuges, people in homeless accommodation not funded by the State or the 5,000 people trapped in direct provision and unable to leave because of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael's housing crisis. This means that almost 3,700 children are spending one, two, three or more years in emergency accommodation.

Today, the Taoiseach hit a new low. I would encourage the Minister to read the transcript. In an exchange with another Opposition figure, the Taoiseach said that "very many"– that is the phrase he used – people in emergency accommodation had refused offers of permanent accommodation. That was a very serious statement to make by the leader of the Government. What it says is that the Government is blaming "very many" of the people in emergency accommodation – the victims of the Minister's failed housing policies – for their own homelessness. The Taoiseach should come to the Chamber tomorrow and apologise for that remark.

We know why all of this is the case. It is because the Government's social and affordable housing targets are too low and it has not met them year after year. According to the Fiscal Monitor for June, the Government is 28% below profile for its capital spend. It cannot hide behind Covid this year, yet it is off target. I know this is the case because, under the darkness of Ryan Tubridy's committee hearing in the Oireachtas today, the Minister launched 75 pages of nothing. There was no new information and nothing about what the Government was actually in control of. The Minister was asked how many social homes had been delivered in the first or second quarter of this year. There was no answer. He was asked how many genuinely affordable homes to rent or buy the Government had delivered in the first or second quarter of this year. He could not answer. When asked how many actual purchases there were through the two tenant purchase schemes, he had a figure of 2,000 and then 500, neither of which is accurate. Of course, that is the cause of the problem. This Government has failed year after year.

It has never been as hard to be a renter. Renters have never been so insecure, paid such high rents and been at greater risk of homelessness. We have tabled a motion yet again to stand up for renters and to set out once more the kinds of policy that this Government should introduce.

I was on "Morning Ireland", another one of my many media appearances where the Minister was not willing to go head to head-----

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

Not true.

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

His press office did provide his statement in advance and he was complaining that I was repeating myself. I will continue to repeat myself, as will my colleagues, with the right policies until the Minister listens. What are we proposing today? It is what we have proposed before, which is an emergency three-year ban on rent increases for all existing renters, new tenancies and new properties in the market, a real refundable tax credit that works and puts a full month's rent back in every renter's pocket, a real emergency response to the homeless crisis, and higher targets for social and affordable housing delivered at pace. The Minister has failed. He out of time and he is out of touch. Today's press event shows that the only way we will tackle this crisis is when he is gone and there is an alternative government to put in place the type of policies we have outlined today. If there was ever an example of this, it is what the Minister did not announce today and what he will not announce in his rebuttal speech after our opening remarks.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

As my colleague has said, Fine Gael has been in power for 13 years. Since 2016 Fianna Fáil has supported Fine Gael through seven budgets. In that time one of the fundamental rights of citizens, the right to a home, has been eroded. The ability of young people to access secure and affordable accommodation has been chipped away. The aspirations of an entire generation to buy their own home, a home where they can build a life or raise a family, has been undercut. Under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael a housing crisis of their own making has deteriorated into a social disaster.

The provision of housing is a basic and fundamental job of government. A government that fails in this duty is a government that is failing itself. Since this Government took office, homelessness has risen by 44%, with 3,699 children homeless last month. This hides the hidden homeless, who are forced to rely on the charity and goodwill of friends and family for a place to stay. We know that spiralling rents and house prices have surpassed the peak of the Celtic tiger and have left young people, families and even pensioners locked in an increasingly insecure and unaffordable rental market, with little hope of ever buying their own homes. All of the evidence of this points in one direction, which is towards a Government that is against home ownership and that is making home ownership more and more difficult. This housing crisis has now seeped into every corner of our society and economy, including my county of Donegal. It is a direct threat to the economy, with businesses now finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain staff.

The housing crisis can be solved, no doubt about it, but it cannot be solved by this Government or the parties that created and deepened the housing emergency. Only a change of government will deliver a government that will deliver a public housing programme fit for the scale of the challenge we face, introduce a ban on rent increases, introduce a refundable tax credit, reinstate the eviction ban and use emergency powers. This is how we will address the homeless crisis. This Government does not have the capacity to do it.

Deputy Pauline Tully

We are again discussing the housing crisis, which is continually and consistently getting worse in every part of the country. The homeless figure now stands at 12,500. This is a serious underestimation because it does not take into account all the people who are sleeping in their parents' box rooms, sofa-surfing in their friends' houses or sleeping on the streets.

Housing is the reason that so many of our young people are emigrating to Australia, Canada and America. They cannot afford to live here. The cost of rent is making it unaffordable for them. Yesterday a father who came to my office told me he and his wife work hard, pay their taxes and have made the necessary sacrifices to ensure their children are well-educated. Now those children are leaving this country because they cannot afford to live here. I had two families contact me recently about loved ones who are awaiting services at the rehabilitation hospital in Dún Laoghaire. The waiting list there is three to six months. When I contacted the rehabilitation hospital, I was told it cannot employ staff. The reason for this is because the staff cannot afford to live in Dún Laoghaire. They are going elsewhere in Ireland and elsewhere abroad.

Young people cannot get a mortgage. If they go to the bank, they cannot show a record of saving because the rents they pay are extortionate. Why can the banks not take into account the fact that people are paying anything from €1,500 to €2,000 a month in rent? This is probably about double what they would have to repay on a mortgage if it were given to them. Let them get their foot on the property ladder.

Recently the rent of a couple in Cavan, one of whom is working, with one child went from €700 per month to €1,250. The man is in receipt of the housing assistance payment. He went to the council, which is to review that payment. This will take months because the council is under-resourced and inundated with queries relating to housing. What is this man supposed to do in the months it will take to review whether he is entitled to an additional payment?

The rent of another woman is about to increase. She is already receiving the housing assistance payment from the council and already getting the 20% discretionary payment. The council cannot do any more for her. In fact, Cavan County Council is telling people not to rent anywhere for more than €900 because it will not pay the housing assistance payment on anything over that. There is nothing available for less than €900.

Deputy Réada Cronin

The rental sector is now in a state of emergency. Rents are very high in my constituency of Kildare North and I want to talk a bit about the people who cannot afford to rent. Imagine what it must be like for people who cannot afford to rent. They become part of the hidden homelessness Deputy Ó Broin has mentioned. They try to sleep on somebody's sofa. They try get up and out to work early in the morning so they are not in the way and they try to stay out late at work for the same reason. They try not to impose on their hosts. They do not want to be in the kitchen or using the washing machine. They pretend they are staying up late because they do not want to disturb people sitting on the sofa, which is the person's bed, watching telly. They always feel embarrassed. They tell me they feel ashamed. I tell them it is not them who should be ashamed but the Government.

I am dealing with the case of a woman who was lucky enough to get a sofa in a friend's house. She was putting her baby in the car to go for a drive at night-time so the baby would not be keeping the whole house awake. When I contacted the council, the official response I got was that it was a matter for Tusla because she should not be driving the baby around at night-time all the time. This is what the Government is doing to families. It is chipping away at them. They are already in a precarious situation. It is wrong to call it an emergency because an emergency is something that comes towards us. This has been Government policy for Fine Gael for the past 12 and a half years.

The Government has broken the social contract because having a good job, earning good money and paying PRSI and USC no longer means people can afford to keep a roof over their family's head. Then the Minister has the gall to say when homeless numbers rise that he expected it. He is completely indifferent to people's suffering. This year another 100 children have become homeless. Imagine what it is like for parents to get down on their hunkers to tell their children they will not be sleeping in that bed tonight and they do not know where they will be sleeping that night. These are not figures we are speaking about. We are speaking about human beings and, most of all, 3,699 children, which are only the children who are counted as being homeless It is the Minister who should be ashamed.

Deputy Dessie Ellis

Recent figures have shown a shocking increase in both adult and child homelessness. The figures confirm that homelessness is accelerating at a dramatic pace. These figures do not tell us how many people are couch-surfing or the real number of rough sleepers. The exit of landlords from the rental sector has added to this crisis. Evictions from private rental accommodation have soared since the eviction ban ended at the end of March. Many of these tenants have nowhere to go and end up in homeless services, facing a bleak and uncertain future. The Government is not delivering social housing on a scale that will alleviate the homeless and housing crisis. We do not even have a realistic affordable housing scheme.

Local authority lands around Finglas, Ballymun and Santry on which housing can be built on at an affordable rate have been identified. This will certainly be the case around the country. Voluntary housing groups such as Ó Cualann Housing have been building and delivering affordable housing for years. However, this Government and previous governments have had an over-reliance on the private sector to provide housing. This has proven to be disastrous.

The Government must get back to building homes and increase the housing stock. If it could be done in the 1950s, a time of mass emigration, chronic unemployment, material deprivation and economic depression, then it can be done now. The Government's over-reliance on the private rental sector has resulted in unaffordable rents, leaving people with no ability to save for a house deposit. Figures show there has been a large drop in home ownership, yet in 2021, the State spent almost €900 million on private rent subsidies and leasing measures.

It spent €542 million on HAP, an 80% increase on the figure for 2018. One third of the rental sector is now reliant on some sort of State subsidy. Couples in good employment and with good incomes are struggling to pay such high rents. This is not going to change while the Government pursues its failed housing policies and strategies, which impact on a wider scale, socially as well as economically, as people cannot take up employment opportunities because there are no places to rent or rents are too exorbitant. These are the crises created by this Government and those that preceded it. While Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil remain in government, it is clear that those crises will only get worse.

Deputy Paul Donnelly

Instead of presiding over a housing disaster, the Minister can bring in the measures following to help those in the rental sector: a three-year ban on rent increases; the creation of a refundable tax credit to put one month's rent back in the pocket of every private renter; a temporary reintroduction of the ban on no-fault evictions; an expansion of the tenant in situ scheme for social and cost rental tenants; and the use of emergency planning and procurement powers, combined with new building technologies. The latter has proven successful in the context of accommodation for Ukrainian refugees and can be replicated.

In my constituency, Sinn Féin has asked for phases 2 and 3 of the Church Fields social, cost-rental and affordable development to be started side by side. Homes in the hands of banks and receivers have been lying empty for years. Vacant homes being brought back into the housing stock would provide an additional stream of public funding to reduce the number of people in emergency accommodation. Threshold's recent We Are Generation Rent report makes for sobering reading. In 2022, just over half the respondents were aged between 35 and 54. This year, 59% of respondents were aged between 35 and 54 and 12% were 55 or older. It is getting ever more difficult to get out of the rental sector. Some 59% of renters were in employment, with just over 70% of respondents earning less than €40,000 a year. Fifty nine per cent were unable to leave the rental sector to buy their own home and 12% cannot avail of social housing.

I will finish with the words of renters. One said he "[w]ould much rather buy but renting really prevents me from saving." Another referred to it being "[s]imply impossible to raise a deposit as a single person while paying extortionate rent." Renters need more security, longer leases and more rights, as is the case in other European countries. Another renter stated:

Not to be pressurised by landlord into paying more rent and for them to stop asking us when we are leaving. They often make veiled threats and say they cannot afford to keep the house at the current rent, and we are concerned they will sell.

If the Minister will not listen to us, let him listen to the people who are experiencing this daily.

Deputy Kathleen Funchion

All aspects of the housing system are broken. Whether it is first-time buyers trying to save for a house, those who are renting or on a housing list or those who, due to a change of family circumstances, need to move out and try to get a different property, there is so much we could talk about on housing that it is sometimes difficult to know on what to focus. This evening, I will focus on renters who do not qualify for assistance or supports. I am not talking about people on seriously high wages but, rather, people who are marginally over the threshold. I am talking about a family of two adults and two children who are struggling to pay rent of €1,350 every month and are €600 over the threshold for the whole year. They are at risk of homelessness because they end up having to borrow from family, friends, moneylenders or any other source they can access to try to pay their rent. They are not seen as being at risk of homelessness but it is clear they are very much at risk of it. I am talking about a family I know whose €20 weekly family income supplement puts them over the income limits. It beggars belief. I have to stop myself telling them to cancel their family income supplement. They need that money for their kids and the bills they have to pay but that €20 is what puts them over the weekly limit. That family, too, is made up of two adults and two children.

I will specifically focus on those who do not qualify for supports and are on a notice to quit or are struggling to pay extortionate rents. Those people have been thrown to the wolves. We have heard so much about this cost rental scheme but I do not know anyone who has qualified for it. Before the Minister or anyone else in government tries to blame local authorities, I make the point that they are not being given adequate resources. The same local authority staff are trying to deal with the homeless section, HAP allocations and HAP place finder and now they are supposed to do this as well. It is impossible for them to do so. Even if there were adequate staffing levels and the scheme was up and running sufficiently, not everybody would qualify for it because not all landlords are selling. Some of them are taking houses back for family or other reasons.

There are so many people right now who have no choice but to overhold their accommodation. That is not a good situation for anyone to be in. It is extremely stressful and worrying and it is not advice we want to give people but, for many of them, what else can they do? Where should they go? I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on the motion because I have a direct question for the Minister. What will he do for people who do not qualify for supports, cannot go on the housing list, are marginally over the income thresholds and have nowhere to go in the coming weeks when their notices to quit are up?

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

I move amendment No. 1:

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

"notes that:

— the Government is taking the challenges in the rental sector and the increase in the number of people accessing homeless supports in recent months very seriously and, through the implementation of Housing for All: A New Housing Plan for Ireland, the Government is actively addressing this;

— a substantial increase in the supply of new homes is the key route to solving Ireland's housing crisis; and

— the Government's Housing for All: A New Housing Plan for Ireland outlines the Government's plans to increase affordability and housing supply by targeting the delivery of, on average, 33,000 new homes per annum out to 2030; and

acknowledges that:

— Housing for All: A New Housing Plan for Ireland is working and supply is increasing substantially, with almost 30,000 homes built in 2022, some 5,000 more than target, and almost 31,000 homes built in the year to end-March 2023, the first time since 2009 that rolling 12-month completions surpassed 30,000;

— there are very positive signs that the uplift in new home delivery will be sustained in 2023 and coming years, with a record 6,700 homes completed in Q1 2023, a record 13,000 homes commencing construction between January and May this year, and Q1 2023 planning permissions up 38 per cent year-on-year and the highest since Q4 2021;

— the continued commitment to unparalleled levels of funding, with a record €4.5 billion in State housing investment in 2023, will ensure that 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;

— social and affordable housing supply is increasing, with 10,263 social homes delivered in 2022, representing an 11.9 per cent increase on 2021 figures when 9,169 social homes were provided; and this represents the highest annual output of social homes in decades and the highest level of delivery of new-build housing since 1975;

— from a standing start 1,757 affordable homes were delivered in 2022, the first full year of affordable housing delivery in a generation, and affordable housing 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, and by delivery partners from local authorities, Affordable Housing Bodies and the Land Development Agency, taken together, the suite of affordable measures will make home ownership achievable for tens of thousands of individuals and families;

— a strong pipeline of social and affordable housing is now in place, with over 19,000 new-build social homes in the pipeline and over 2,500 more local authority affordable homes already approved for funding;

— the expanded use of the Tenant In-Situ Scheme and the establishment of the Cost Rental Tenant-in-Situ Scheme, developed on an administrative basis to address the immediate circumstances of the ending of the 'winter emergency period' on 31st March, 2023, will help prevent homelessness;

— the recent introduction of a time-limited temporary waiver of development contributions and Uisce Éireann water and wastewater connection charges in respect of residential development, which will have to be completed by the end of 2025, will help to address construction cost viability issues and incentivise the activation of a pipeline of new commencements to further assist in meeting our ambitious housing delivery targets;

— the numerous initiatives to address vacancy, including changes to the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant and the new €150 million fund to specifically address long-term vacancy and dereliction now available under the Urban Regeneration Development Fund, will revitalise towns and cities while also providing additional homes;

— the Government is tackling supply and affordability issues in the rental market by delivering Cost Rental housing at scale with hundreds now tenanted, and 1,345 local authority cost rental units, across seven projects, have been approved for funding of almost €196 million;

— regulatory controls on short-term-lets will be strengthened, with a ban on the advertising of non-principal private residences in Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) for short-term letting purposes, where the necessary planning permission is not in place;

— tenancy protections have been enhanced, with rent increase caps in RPZs, restricted deposit amounts, extended notice periods, and tenancies of unlimited duration introduced by this Government; and crucially the period from the date of receipt of a 'no fault' Notice of Termination for a tenant to submit a dispute to the Residential Tenancies Board for resolution has also been increased from 28 days to 90 days;

— the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has commenced a comprehensive review of the private rental sector to take account of the significant regulatory changes over the past several years; and this review will be essential in properly planning future policy for the residential rented sector, including implementing measures to support both landlords and tenants; and

— Housing for All (September 2021) and Housing for All Action Plan Update (November 2022) includes a comprehensive suite of measures and actions to fundamentally reform the housing system in Ireland, while these include, securing pathways out of homelessness for individuals, families and children, accelerating delivery through the adoption of Modern Methods of Construction, overhauling planning legislation, and addressing vacancy by bringing empty housing stock and other premises into the residential stock, underpinned by a new Vacant Homes Action Plan 2023-2026.".

I welcome the opportunity to set out the Government action to address the challenges in the rental sector, help those who may be experiencing homelessness and accelerate the supply of social, affordable, cost-rental and private housing. I am glad we have had input from Sinn Féin this evening. I took Priority Questions on Thursday last. Deputy Gould was the only one who put a housing question to me that morning. A person who had been listening to colleagues on the other side of the House for the past half hour or so would be forgiven for thinking no progress is being made on housing.

It is a pity the Deputy was not here to ask questions last week and most of his colleagues were not here either. Please afford me the opportunity of responding on the Sinn Féin motion.

A strong pipeline of social and affordable housing is now in place, with more than 19,000 new build social homes in the pipeline and during-----

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

How many have been delivered so far this year? It is a simple question.

I thank the Minister. Please, without interruption. Manners are in poor supply tonight. I call Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh.

Deputy Martin Kenny

We swapped.

An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach (Deputy Mattie McGrath)

Sorry, that is okay. The Deputy is right.

Deputy Martin Kenny

We has a changeover in respect of that. Listening to the Minister one would think we have no crisis in Ireland in our housing sector. While there is drama going on at RTÉ in respect of many other things, I switched over to Euronews in the past couple of days. There was a report on that channel, which is broadcast across every country in Europe, which went under the headline "Ireland's housing crisis: Millennials, a generation sacrificed". During the report, it was stated:

In recent years Ireland has a continued trend of emigration, that young graduates and young millennials are leaving the Emerald Isle for greener pastures. But this time they are leaving on account of a housing crisis exacerbated by inflation, which is destroying their future prospects.

That is the message that is being beamed out across every country in Europe regarding the Minister's housing policy. The Minister has been in power and propping up a Government for the past, probably seven or eight years at this stage. Propping up the exact same policies that he is now implementing. Those policies are failing. They are failing when we look at the way rents are increasing. They are increasing in County Louth by 21%, in County Longford there is a 54% increase. In the area in County Sligo where I live, rents have gone up by 28%. They have increased by 33% in County Leitrim. The Minister tells us there is no crisis, there is no problem, and that because we pointing to the problem that we are the problem. That the opposition is the issue here. The opposition is not the issue here, the opposition are the ones telling the Minister that he needs to get something done about the people across the length and breadth of this country who cannot afford to rent or buy anywhere to live.

We have to get to grips with this situation. The Minister needs to build houses, he needs to provide policies that will provide the affordable rental accommodation which so many people across the country need. Many of our Deputies, including me, were over with the students' union across the road. One of the issues that is top of their agenda is student accommodation. There is also a crisis in that regard across the entire country. If we do not get to grips with this, we will see thousands and thousands more Irish people leave the country because they cannot afford to live here. In the clip on Euronews, there was a man from Dublin who was living here because he said it was the only place he could afford to have a job and a place to live. I remember many years ago the writer Joseph O'Connor said that he moved to London in the 1980s because it was the only place he could find where he could have a job and a private life. Now, people in Ireland cannot have a job, a private life or a home because they cannot afford to live here. We need to change that and the only way that will be changed is if the Minister steps aside and his Government gets out of office because they are simply a failure.

Deputy Maurice Quinlivan

The Minister said we put down no questions to him last Thursday. I had tabled oral questions to him but, unfortunately, they were not selected. That is not my fault.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

I was saying there was one priority question by one Deputy.

People are at their wits' end. They come to my constituency office every day, just as they go to other people's constituency offices all across the State. There is absolutely nothing to rent. For a working family, even one on a small income, there is no support whatsoever if over the limit. There are families back living with their parents. An absolute social disaster is happening in front of us and there are working families back living in box rooms. My office is inundated with people ringing morning, noon and night. Since the Government ended the eviction ban, our one question has been about where these people are supposed to go. That is the question the Minister has never answered. What do I say to people who will be in my office again on Monday? I have many people booked in for Monday. Where are they supposed to go? There is nothing for them to rent. They cannot get on the housing list. Even if they could, there would be 2,500 people ahead of them.

Deputy Seán Crowe

With a shortage of affordable housing and increasing homelessness rates, the need for social housing has become more urgent than ever. The last thing Irish people want to hear is the excuse that homes cannot be built overnight. Fine Gael has been in power for 12 years. In those 12 long years, the level of homelessness has done nothing but grow. We have seen homelessness records broken time and again. There are 3,700 children in emergency accommodation and I genuinely worry that there will be 4,000, 5,000 or 6,000 by the next election. We are told that there is a bumper budget worth €6 billion on the way. Shame on the Minister if we fail to ensure no child grows up in emergency accommodation.

A substantial increase in the supply of social and affordable homes will help to combat homelessness and will prevent more vulnerable individuals and families from falling into a cycle of poverty and destitution. That should be our aim but it does not seem to be. Affordable housing options allow individuals and families to allocate their resources in order to meet other essential needs, such as education and healthcare, and for discretionary spending on food and clothing. Is that too much to ask in this day and age?

They say politics is about choices. It is also about the art of doing the possible. Surely it is not overly ambitious to believe we can house our citizens, including families and children. We were elected to make decisions that might ultimately affect the course of people's lives. That makes our choices moral as well as political. The provision of social housing in Ireland has become a moral imperative, as well as an essential public good. It ensures the right to housing, promotes social cohesion, reduces inequality and contributes to economic stability. It is a no-brainer. Investing in social housing is an investment in the well-being and future of the Irish people, fostering a more equitable and inclusive society for all. We cannot continue to break homelessness records and say it is somehow normal, inevitable or even right.

Deputy Thomas Gould

The average rent in Cork is over €1,700. How could any ordinary family pay that type of money? A lady who came to my clinic yesterday is paying the council rent but is also paying €220 per month on top of her housing assistance payment. She cannot survive. She has been on to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Does the Minister know what I had to do for her yesterday? As she has a child, I had to contact Caitríona Twomey of Penny Dinners to get her nappies and a hamper. The lady and her child, who is two and a half years old, could become homeless if the rent is not paid. That is the only choice the lady has because of the Government. A grandmother who came to me is in emergency accommodation. She said that, at this hour of her life, she is ashamed to be in emergency accommodation because she cannot access social housing. That is on the Minister's watch.

The Minister referred to all the figures a while ago. I will give him a couple of figures that came out today. Today we saw that only 15% of the homes to be delivered in 2033 were delivered in quarter one. That means 85% will have to be delivered in the other quarters. The Minister spoke about planning permissions. I will tell him about planning permissions in Cork: there are 50 units fewer compared to last year. These are the figures out today.

I will give the Minister another figure. The target for social housing builds in Cork between 2022 and 2026 is 3,732, with 202 long-term leases. This is just fewer than 4,000 builds. There are 1,000-plus people going onto the housing list in Cork every year. Therefore, if the council builds everything the Minister wants it to build, there will still be 10,000 people on the list, 10,000 being the number on the list now. They might be different people but there will still be 10,000. The Minister has accused my party colleague, the spokesperson on housing, Deputy Ó Broin, of outrageous behaviour. The Minister's outlining of all his figures here along with the rest of the Government is outrageous behaviour. These are the facts and figures: we now have the highest numbers on housing lists, the highest house prices, the highest rents, the highest number in homelessness and 3699 children in emergency accommodation. When will the Minister admit that he has failed, and when will he admit that this policy is gone?

Deputy Ged Nash

The very last phone call I got on my mobile phone before I came in here this evening was from somebody I have represented for many years, a person who has been told by his landlord that he is just about to receive an eviction notice. He is married with a large family and is now contemplating what he can do. He knows that if he looks around the Drogheda area, he will simply not be able to find, at an affordable price, the kind of accommodation that he and his family need. He receives no rental support and is working in a modest job on a modest income. The sense of hopelessness is overwhelming him and his family. He is now asking whether he can put a mobile home at the side of his mother-in-law's house or organise a log cabin. Of course, we have to advise individuals that, as per planning regulations, that is not acceptable or tolerated. This suggests the level of concern and anxiety among people because there are very few alternatives, if any. This is notwithstanding the Minister's recital of the Government's alleged housing successes, which really grate on people like my constituent who had to receive the news to which I refer this afternoon.

Five months ago, in early February, our party leader stood here and called on the Government to halt its plans to end the eviction ban. We in Labour proposed a series of constructive alternative measures that would have served to increase the number of homes available to people while giving existing tenants the continued security of a no-fault eviction ban. Even the Conservative Party in the UK has acknowledged that a no-fault eviction ban needs to be considered. The Labour Party's plea of several months ago, which has been repeated by us and others on this side of the House, fell on deaf ears. The Government pressed ahead with its wrong-headed decision to lift the eviction ban without putting any serious mitigation measures in place to stave off the inevitable wave of evictions and homelessness that would follow.

Everything we predicted would happen has happened. It is time now for the Government to drop its hubris, admit its mistake once and for all and backtrack. There is no shame in admitting you are wrong. In fact, given the current circumstances, the Government and the Minister would gain some respect from admitting they were wrong and changing course.

The latest homelessness figures are damning and they are also predictable. Almost 12,500 people in the State are without a home and living in emergency accommodation or on the street. Well over 3,500 of those people are children. It is nothing short of a national scandal. How the Government thought lifting a no-fault eviction ban in the middle of this kind of crisis was a good idea is beyond comprehension. We in the Labour Party have suggested, quite reasonably, that the eviction ban be tied to success in addressing homelessness, with a series of metrics to be applied to addressing the problem and measuring success. That is what we proposed in the Bill we presented earlier this year in response to the Minister's decision. We proposed that, after some time, the effectiveness of his housing and homelessness strategy should be measured and, if there was a discernible reduction in homelessness, the conditions would be created whereby the no-fault eviction ban could be lifted. Lifting the ban at a time when homelessness was already on the rise was reckless in the extreme and the consequences, as I said, were utterly predictable.

The Government regularly trots out figures in this House, as the Minister did earlier, seeking to present a picture that it is doing a brilliant job on housing. The truth is that homelessness has reached unprecedented levels under the Government and is continuing to rise. The record speaks for itself and the numbers have been recited. Since the Government took office in 2020, there has been a staggering 39% increase in homelessness among children. That number represents untold misery and insecurity. The Minister knows well that homelessness does untold damage to young people's lives. It is an experience that lives with them forever.

The director of advocacy at Focus Ireland, Mike Allen, said recently:

As the eviction ban ended, we anticipated a surge in homelessness, and these figures regrettably confirm our concerns. It is terrible to see a 30% rise in family homelessness since this time last year. It feels as if the shocking monthly increases in homelessness have stunned the country and left us unable to take action.

However, we cannot be fatalistic about this. We have to hope there are solutions. From this side of the House, practical solutions and proposals are being provided on a daily basis. Action must be taken. We are in an emergency situation and an emergency response is required.

Where is the realistic and practical emergency response from the Minister? One of the emergency measures called for in this motion is a three-year rent freeze. We can argue about how long a rent freeze should last but the need for it to be enforced right now is blindingly obvious. It is a staggering statistic that for all the bluster about rent pressure zones, RPZs, and how they would bring rising rents under control, rents in this country are up 23% since the Government was formed. The average rent in Dublin has topped €2,000, while the rest of the country is seeing average rents of more than €1,500. Last year alone, rents went up 7.6%, with half the counties in the State recording rises in the double digits. I was recently informed by a constituent that she is facing a rent hike of almost 60% thanks to a bizarre anomaly that leaves her small electoral division outside all the RPZs in County Louth, even though every single surrounding town and village lies within such a zone. While renters across Europe enjoy much greater security of tenure and protection against huge rent hikes, Irish people in our rental sector are at risk. The actions of the Government have objectively left them at even greater risk.

On the supply side, the motion includes a practical measure for which we in the Labour Party have been calling for some time, namely, the extension and expansion of the tenant in situ scheme. However, any such expansion must come with greater accountability requirements for local authorities. Responses to parliamentary questions put down by my party colleague and leader, Deputy Bacik, show there have been failures in how the scheme has operated, or failed to operate, at local authority level. Unfortunately, there are inconsistencies in the application of the scheme across the country. In our motion on housing last February, we called for monthly reporting on the scheme from local authorities, with detailed explanations as to why any purchase of an available rental property did not proceed. That would be good public policymaking.

The Labour Party motion, like the motion before us today, addressed the issue of vacant properties. Almost 8% of our housing stock is vacant. That figure must start working its way towards zero. The Minister must enable local authorities to commence the rapid compulsory purchase of vacant properties. National targets must be set for turning vacant properties into liveable homes. I recall the launch some months ago of the vacant homes plan for this year, which included no targets whatsoever. It is extraordinary to publish a plan without being prepared to identify targets for each local authority across the country.

The Government has spurned many opportunities to change course in its approach to housing and homelessness. Let us not allow this motion to be another missed opportunity. We presented a motion on housing four months ago that included many of the measures being presented today, and more besides. The Minister gave us the deaf ear. It often happens that if a motion is not amended, it is simply nodded through. If the Government is not in a position to oppose a Bill, such as our Residential Tenancies (Tenants' Rights) Bill, for example, it is sent off to the place where Bills go to die, never to be seen again. That is not the kind of response that is required to deal with this emergency.

It is time for the Minister to change course. I understand, appreciate and acknowledge the figures he read into the record earlier today. However, we need to be much more ambitious. The Housing for All plan was developed at a time when we did not have the data we have now following the census. I recall many of the remarks and commitments the Minister made when he decided to run down the eviction ban a couple of months ago. We all recall the first refusal proposal that was launched in a blaze of glory. It was going to be a great silver bullet, or at least a mitigating measure, for people who were about to lose their home. They would be offered first refusal, as renters, to purchase the property. It was an unrealistic policy in many ways because there are very few people who are a position to take that on in the first place. Nevertheless, the Minister proposed it. We know from media reports over the past couple of days that the proposition is now delayed and is unlikely to reach the floor of the House until at least September. The Minister is failing on every count. It is time to review his plans, change tack and accept the proposals in this motion.

Deputy Cian O'Callaghan

When the Government took office, there were 8,699 people living in emergency accommodation for the homeless. That was far too many. The figure did not include people sleeping rough, including in cars, tents and parks and on floors and couches. Since then, there has been a 43% increase in the number of people who are homeless. They now number 12,441, including 3,699 children.

Unfortunately, in moving his amendment to the motion, the Minister barely gave homeless people a mention. He did mention them but it was barely a mention. What is really offensive is that the Government's amendment proposes to delete the following words from the motion:

[That Dáil Eireann] further notes with extreme concern that:

Why does the Government want to delete that from the motion? There is passing mention in its amendment to homeless people but no recognition of the numbers or the reality of homelessness. What does it say to people in homelessness that the Government is moving an amendment to a motion to delete reference to the reality of the numbers of homeless people in this country? The Minister can shake his head but that is exactly what he is doing.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

No, it is not.

It is what the Minister is doing. He is trying to delete facts and the reality of the number of homeless people from this motion. That is exactly what he is doing. Should homeless people not be properly visible? Should we not be talking about how to eradicate homelessness? Should the Minister not be saying how he is going to decrease the number of people who are homeless rather than trying to delete references to the number of homeless people and how much that number has grown since he took over as Minister of Housing, Local Government and Heritage from the motion? That is a legitimate question and a legitimate point to make.

During Leaders' Questions earlier today, the Taoiseach was almost seeking to shift responsibility for being homeless onto homeless people in the answers he gave. He sought to blame people who are homeless for being homeless. One of the most powerful people in this country was trying to make people who have the misfortune of being homeless and who are going through all of that trauma and stress feel that they are somehow responsible for the housing disaster they are suffering from. It shows a complete lack of an idea of what homeless people go through. In his comments, he was almost making out that people who are in emergency accommodation should be grateful to this Government for being provided with that accommodation. He seemed to have no concept of the reality of people who are homeless and in emergency accommodation.

In our constituencies, we all deal with people who tell us that they have rung services because they know they are going to be evicted in two months' time or six weeks' time and need emergency accommodation. They are told that there is nothing the service can do now and that they should come back when they are evicted. They then ring up when they are evicted and some have been asked whether they have a car they could sleep in. What sort of a way is that to treat people who become homeless? If people get into emergency accommodation, they can be assaulted or robbed. They can be without a secure locker to lock away their small number of personal possessions and they can be in rooms without windows. While this is not necessarily reflected across the board, some have reported being robbed and assaulted by staff in emergency accommodation. In questions to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, I have raised, a number of times, conditions in emergency accommodation for homeless people and the fact that we do not have proper regulated standards that are applied across the board and on the same basis to private providers as to the not-for-profit sector. That issue has not been properly addressed and I have raised it over a number of years.

It is worth noting that it is not only Opposition Deputies who have raised issues with the tenant in situ scheme and how it is being operated. There are Deputies in this House who vote with the Government who have raised issues with inconsistencies and anomalies in the scheme. To give just one example, while I appreciate that it takes time for acquisitions to go through, according to the last figures I got from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, only three acquisitions had been completed. The need for housing in Dún Laoghaire is very significant and a great many people are getting evicted. There are a few more acquisitions in process but we are talking about a small handful. That does not compare well to some of the other local authorities. There are other local authorities that are doing better. The issue that people have been consistently raising is that the scheme is not being applied consistently and that some local authorities are raising issues as to why they cannot progress the tenant in situ scheme that others are not. That is a very real issue and I implore the Minister to listen in that regard. It needs to be sorted because it is a good scheme that could make a world of difference. There should be no reason for people in one local authority area to be treated totally differently from people in others.

I will read the words of a number of renters affected by the lifting of the eviction ban who are worried about becoming homeless and being evicted. I want to put them front and centre in this debate. Mary from Tipperary says that she is rented accommodation awaiting a council house and that lifting the eviction ban would leave her sleeping on the street. She is 53 years old and says that all she has is her rented home.

Evelina from Dublin asks how this can be happening. She is part of a working couple who work full-time and get no help from the State. They feel hopeless because they cannot afford anything in Dublin. Their daughter is terrified that she will have to quit school and sports clubs and move far away from the place she calls home. Evelina says that the Government says it is right and necessary to put them on the street.

Shelley from Cork says that her rented home is being sold for a second time in two years, that she cannot afford to buy and that her rent has more than doubled since she was in her previous home. She has no doubt that it will go way up again when she cannot find somewhere else and says she is very worried.

Sharon from Meath says that her family is entering their 12th year in rented accommodation and that the landlord has sold his property to another landlord. This new owner purchased her home without even looking at them and sent a text saying that he wants the whole family out. She notes that not a single euro was ever spent on the property and that her family has always maintained it themselves. Her son, her grandson and her family have always called the place home.

Radia from Dublin says that she has had housing-related anxiety ever since she moved to Ireland eight years ago. She ran away from an abusive family to try to start a new life here. She has been in steady full-time work ever since she moved here but she has a minimum-wage job and therefore has no hope of securing a home.

Karina from Wicklow says that she has been renting for 11 years and that her apartment is in show house condition. She says that her landlord now wants to let a family member move in but that we all know this is only a ruse to get more money. She will have to move back in with her mother in her mid-30s.

Aoife from Dublin says that she is the mother of two young kids and that they live in a one-bedroom basement apartment. Her landlord is evicting them at the end of the month. They have nowhere to go and she is so worried that she cannot sleep. She says she feels sick thinking about it.

Mary from Clare says that she is paying high rent and that this is adding to her financial worries. She has no security of tenure and is always fearful of being evicted again. She says that it is impossible to provide stability to a child and that there is absolutely nowhere else available in her area.

Fleur from Carlow says that she is 33 and married but has had to move back in with her parents because there is nothing available on the market to rent. She says that anything that is there is too expensive and that there is no hope of her ever affording to buy a house if she did move out.

Eoin from Limerick says that he will be evicted at the end of the month because the landlord wants to renovate. He has searched on Daft and asked everyone he knows but cannot find anything. He says his only option is to stay on a friend's couch. He has a full-time job and says that this has made him really depressed.

This is the reality facing people.

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett

It is disappointing that the Minister has to go-----

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

Deputy Boyd Barrett scared him away.

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett

-----because this is our last chance before quite a long break to appeal to the Government to step up its game and to respond to a housing and homelessness emergency that is continuing to get worse. I hope the officials and the Minister of State will listen although, realistically, I do not expect them to admit that their policies are failing or to take on board the full package of alternative proposals the Opposition is offering.

I thank Deputy Ó Broin and Sinn Féin for giving us the opportunity to discuss these matters. RTÉ has sucked the oxygen out of the air. That is an important issue but there are things that are impacting much more significantly on ordinary people out there and these issues will continue to persist long after the RTÉ debacle is history and, more importantly, over the summer.

I will make a few specific requests. I agree with all of the general points that have been made. At the most extreme end of this crisis are people who are in homeless accommodation or who are threatened with being in such accommodation. The Government has to do something to stem the tide because it is getting worse. It also has to do something for the people who are trapped in homeless accommodation and who cannot get out because there are no alternatives available for them.

Let us start with the last point. Today, when I put a question to the Taoiseach, I heard him say that people generally do not stay that long in homeless accommodation and, as Deputy Cian O'Callaghan noted, he implied that, if they are stuck in it for a long time, it is their own fault.

That is not my experience.

I have written to the Minister and to the Taoiseach about a number of cases when solicited. These are cases of working people with children who are in homeless accommodation. One working mother has been in homeless accommodation for four years. Another working mother, who was in with me this week, has been in homeless accommodation for two and a half years. These are people who are going out to work and paying their taxes and they are trapped in homeless accommodation because they have nowhere to go. It is not because they are refusing offers or anything that the Taoiseach seemed to be implying, but because they have nowhere to go. Will the Government do something about people who are stuck in emergency accommodation on a long-term basis? A special effort needs to be made to get them out. It is bad enough that anybody should end up there, but it is absolutely unacceptable that children should be left on a long-term basis. Can we have a little bit of targeted intervention to address those unacceptable cases?

Obviously, we are demanding the reinstatement, even on a temporary basis, of the eviction ban. If we are going to address this crisis, to let hundreds more each month go into to emergency accommodation is just crazy. It is insane to allow it to happen. The Government says the eviction ban did not have that much of an effect when it was in place but things are worse now, with the figures rising and rising. For God's sake, will the Government do something to stop people going into homelessness? It is logical that it would do so.

If the only show in town is the tenant in situ scheme, will the Government at least ensure local authorities are consistent in its application? The case in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown has been in the papers this week. The person who is at the centre of that story was in my office this week saying that if there were management fees involved, they would not do a purchase, even though the family is facing homelessness. That is not being done in other council areas. How can the Government allow that inconsistency? If Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council is saying that management fees are an impediment to buying houses when people are threatened with homelessness, there will be thousands of people where that excuse will be used to prevent protecting them from homelessness. Think about how many people are paying management fees in multi-unit complexes. There needs to be intervention now with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. Today my office was in touch with the council about this and the response we got was that it could not talk to us about it. It is obviously under pressure on the issue but we need the Minister to get on to it and tell it that is not an acceptable excuse.

The cost-rental issue needs to be addressed quickly. I got a rubbishy answer back from the Minister on cost rental. The income limits and the cost of the cost rental are not aligned. Huge numbers of people who are in the income brackets for cost rental are told they are not eligible because the rent being charged for the cost rental it is not something they can pay on their income. In other words, they tick the income box but the rent is too high so they cannot apply. This is crazy. The Government has not done the basic maths on the cost-rental scheme. That has to be addressed.

I have raised the case of another family on multiple occasions. This family has just discovered they have been legally evicted. The judge gave them a few months' stay but they are facing the cliff in a couple of months' time. This is another working family which is over the social housing income threshold. They have now discovered they are over the coast-rental threshold. Basically, the council is telling the family there is nothing it can do for them even though the family does not have the money to pay the rent or because they are older they will not get a mortgage from the banks. They are not eligible for the local authority home loan. The council needs to be told that something must be done for this family. The family must be prevented from going into homelessness. Raise the thresholds or whatever needs to be done. How can the Government just let them be made homeless, when they are clearly trying everything, as so many people are in the same situation? They are trying to explore every option. The family has contacted hundreds of landlords looking for places they can afford. They have no options. The Government has to give them an option to stop them ending up homeless, because at the moment they have none. When will the Members of this Government get this stuff into their heads? The local authorities should be instructed to do everything in their power to prevent people ending up homeless.

Deputy Mick Barry

I support this motion which outlines well the housing crisis and its impact on the people. The provision of social housing is a key part of the solution to the crisis. Social housing must be quality housing and when the State is a landlord it must be an exemplary one. This is not always the case and it is certainly not always the case in Cork city. I want to bring to the attention of the Dáil the case of the Noonan's Road flats in Cork city. There are 60 units in these flats. The vast majority are occupied by Cork City Council tenants. These tenants pay rent to the council every week. However, they have to put up with broken heating systems, crumbling balconies, chronic damp, black mould and mice and rat infestations. Many of these tenants are vulnerable people, some of whom are old or sick. They feel they have been abandoned and forgotten by the council. The negative psychosocial effects of this abandonment are very real.

Around the corner are a couple of key tourist locations. Tourists visiting Cork this summer will be impressed by St. Fin Barre's Cathedral and Elizabeth Fort. I wonder how many of them will be aware that around the corner, people are being forced to live in conditions not fit for human habitation. No doubt the tourists would be shocked. They might be even more shocked to discover the landlord is not a private, grasping individual but Cork City Council. The tourist attractions are well maintained and rightly so. However, the places where people are asked to live are abandoned and ignored. I say shame on Cork City Council.

I congratulate the tenants for calling out this neglect, for getting organised and for starting to campaign on this issue. They are demanding that Cork City Council implement a programme of risk assessment, housing inspections and emergency repairs. The council would do well to listen carefully and respond to their demands. If the Noonan's Road tenants are forced to step up their campaign and take stronger action, the council might find that there are many other neglected tenants across the city who might fall in behind them and put the council under very serious pressure on this issue.

Deputy Seán Canney

We are talking about the problems with housing again. I want to address a few issues that are having a serious effect on how we deliver our housing stock. In my constituency, many towns and villages do not have a wastewater treatment plant. These towns and villages have been frozen out of any developments as Bord Pleanála deems such developments to be premature until municipal water treatment plants are in place. In April 2022 the Department and the Minister announced a pilot wastewater treatment scheme costing €50 million to help towns and villages. To date, no announcement has been made on any of these treatment plants. It is 18 months on and when the announcement comes, we will then have the process of acquiring land, the planning process, etc. We will probably not see any of that money giving results for another three or four years. Something has to be done to make these things happen more quickly. Some €50 million is probably 10% of what is needed in this country to provide this infrastructure in our towns and villages if we are to develop them and to make them hubs where people can live and work and support their communities.

While we have restored an exemption for planning development charges, we are now taking this money back this other way from people. If we are to be real, we should defer this measure until we see progress being made in the numbers we have in this regard. It is important we deal with these things in a practical way. When we had a vote previously on the eviction ban, our Regional Group brought forward vital proposals. These included adjustment of the Croí Cónaithe scheme, which has proven successful. The tenant in situ purchase scheme has also proven successful. I can see this in my constituency, where the local authority has told me the demand for these schemes is increasing.

One thing we have not done, though, which we voted on and agreed here, has been to remove the barriers to leasing out the 12,000 homes vacant due to the people who own them being in full-time care in nursing homes. The Minister of State with special responsibility for older people, Deputy Butler, has concerns about this initiative. She has been reviewing it since May. I put it on the record again that this proposal is not to put people into nursing homes. Nobody goes into a nursing home without it being independently assessed by the HSE to see if people are suitable candidates. I do not, therefore, see a problem. This proposal is for people who have decided and been assessed to go into nursing homes. It is important this review, or codology, is finished and we try to bring some of these houses on stream by removing the barriers to the taxation measures that will be instituted in cases and apply when the houses of people in nursing homes are rented out.

The planning situation we have, the local area plans and how we develop them is anti-development now. We have completely lost control of what we want to do concerning local area plans. We are dezoning land and then rezoning land that is not available. We are also zoning land which is landlocked and doing all these kinds of things. On paper, we are doing everything according to the regulations and the regulator is then happy with this. Regarding this thing of having densities in towns and villages and planning in this regard, the threat is that if more land is zoned than what the core strategy tells us to do, the result will be the Minister taking the whole endeavour and directing it. This is wrong. Local people, local knowledge and local councillors should be able to make decisions and ensure we have more than enough land zoned in the first place to try to bring down the price of the land for building on rather than just having it quoted and having a large increase in the value of that land as a result.

Deputy Peadar Tóibín

I take this opportunity to invite everyone in the House to join me at a vigil tomorrow that Aontú is organising to remember the more than 400 homeless people who have died in Dublin since 2018. Every party is organising this vigil. It is not a political event. It is simply a vigil to remember the shocking human tragedy that is unfolding on the streets of our capital city. Fr. Peter McVerry and family members of some of those who have died will be attending outside the gates tomorrow at 6 p.m.

Documents released to me under freedom of information legislation in recent weeks show that 20 homeless people have died in Dublin in the first few months of this year. One of them was a child, with a further four people aged between 20 and 29. Aontú has been raising this issue for some time. In 2018, 47 people died in Dublin in homelessness. In 2019, 49 people died. It became very obvious to me during the summer of 2020 that something was seriously wrong. Homeless people were being denied help in Dublin and had to go home to their counties of origin for assistance. This was at a time when we could get arrested for crossing county borders. The Minister promised an investigation when I raised this matter at the time. Tragically, this investigation has dragged on for years with little action. In all, in 2020, we had 76 homeless deaths in Dublin. This represented a 60% increase on the number of homeless people who had died the previous year. The following year saw 115 people die in homelessness in Dublin. Last year, 95 people lost their lives in homelessness, and this was just in Dublin.

We are not recording homelessness in any other local authority area in the country, which is a disgrace. If we are not even measuring what is happening in respect of fatalities in homelessness, how in God's name can we marshal the necessary resources to help fix the problems in these locations? Behind each of these statistics are individuals, their families and their friends. The ages of these people are deeply concerning. Of the 20 people who died in homelessness in Dublin so far this year, ten were aged between 30 and 49. Two-thirds of the people who died in homelessness this year, therefore, were younger than me. This is an extraordinary figure. The Dublin Region Homeless Executive, DRHE, because of the spike in homelessness in 2020, provided me with some details on those deaths that occurred in July and August 2020. On one occasion, a woman in her 30s appears to have tragically taken her own life. Another woman was in her 20s when she died. Another young woman of 19 died in an emergency accommodation situation. Another death was of a man in his 20s who was found dead while sleeping rough. He had been released from prison the day before his death. It is incredible this is happening. In the society in which we are living, there is an us and them situation in the material results experienced by people.

Those deaths all occurred in one month. The following month, a man in his 50s died in an NGO service, as did another male in his 30s and another male in his 40s. This was followed by another man in his 40s who died by taking his own life. The same month, a female in her 30s died while homeless. Between July and August 2020, a total of 15 people died while homeless in Dublin. This is about two people weekly in this scenario. The findings of the investigation published by the Department of Health in recent weeks, produced by the Health Research Board, HRB, make for sad reading. Substance abuse and mental health were the major factors, but the report also cites the fact these "deaths were primarily the result of the social determinants of health, including inadequate accommodation, poverty, lack of employment, child and adult trauma, and imprisonment".

We know the causes of these deaths. What we now need is the urgent implementation of the solution. We need the Departments of Health, Justice, Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, and Education to work together on this issue, from DEIS schools to psychologists and social workers and prison officers. It is a scandal that people are dying in homelessness at this rate in Ireland in 2023, and the Government has taken far too long even just to look into this issue. We also need the Government to urgently begin to record the homeless deaths happening in the counties and local authorities outside Dublin. How can the Minister of State stand over not even recording these figures in his own county?

Deputy Mattie McGrath

We could stay here all night and all day talking about building houses. It saddens me. I have said this many times. I spent five years on the joint committee with responsibility for housing and we have lost our way. The Government makes announcements. Let us take the announcement on the fees, which I welcome very much. I refer to waiving the fees for Irish Water and the planning development fees on houses. I was delighted this happened. There is a deadline and people are caught in it. Sneakily, and I raised this issue with the Taoiseach last week, the Government is going to allow a 5% levy on all concrete products from September. It is going to impact every man and woman who wants to build, buy or rent a house. One hand does not know what the other is doing.

I refer to the bureaucracy involved in getting planning permission and the lack of people able to build in the country because of An Taisce and people with whom the Minister of State's party is very closely associated. There is then the whole situation of not being able to build in a village or small town because there is no capacity in the sewerage system. This is a chronic situation. Throughout the country, there is no capacity in sewerage systems.

This motion is a good one and parts of it are very good, but the Government is putting blockages in the way of people building houses across the board. If people have sites and want to get planning permission, it will not be given to them. If it is inside a town, if people are told to build in a settlement, and if there is no capacity in the sewerage works, then it will not be possible for them to get planning permission. There is also a convoluted application process for many of the schemes in place. One cancels out the other. Simplicity is what is needed here.

Also needed, of course, is the recording of the numbers of people in homelessness and those who die in homelessness, which is shocking.

The Government seems to be shockproof with regard to having feelings about people dying in homelessness or in State care or who have died because of many issues.

Deputy Michael Collins

There are many reasons we have a housing crisis and we have put forward many of those in motions recently at every opportunity available to us. Planning permissions are a very significant issue, as are sewerage issues, where housing developments are being objected to and where county development plan decisions are taken out of the hands of councillors. All of these decisions are feeding into a very negative situation.

The Minister of State even spoke last week here about the issue of honesty, in that we need honesty about what is contaminating our waters and about sewage. I keep telling the Minister of State about Shannonvale and we have a Deputy in west Cork who has never stopped shouting about it since I brought it up in the Dáil. He wants to cure it all and he was a mayor himself for a year and nothing happened. Since the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, was down in west Cork, the town has gone off the list instead of being on the list. Raw sewage is up in that community field and going into the mains water in Clonakilty, and it is scandalous.

On planning permission, young people are coming to me every week in my constituency, where I have a few clinics, to tell me they have been repeatedly refused planning. Why is that? There are masses of houses being built in some places like above here in Dublin and I do not begrudge anyone having mass development here, but surely be to God it should be the same for the person in rural Ireland as it is in urban Ireland, but it is not. An unfair burden is being put on people in rural Ireland thanks to the Minister of State's Government and to county development plans which are a complete disaster. Now that control has been taken away from the councillors, as mentioned by Deputy Canney, and the councillors, in fairness always fought for these people.

I also fully agree with Deputy Mattie McGrath about the 5% increase in the price of concrete products. This will create a dire situation for young people, in particular, who are trying to build homes. I am pointing the finger very much at the Government but I am also proposing solutions. The Government must wake up to these solutions and work with the local people, the councillors and the Deputies and stop driving Green Party policy, driving people out of rural communities and, at the same time, causing an urban crisis.

Deputy Carol Nolan

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. It is, however, Groundhog Day. How much longer must people wait before they can see any tangible progress on the delivery of social and affordable housing? How much longer are young people to be excluded from living in their rural areas thanks to the frankly stupid planning system which operates in this country? How much longer are rents going to take an absolutely disgraceful amount from the salaries and wages of ordinary people who are already hard pressed?

In the brief time I have to speak, I want to deal with the absolute scandal which has emerged in recent days thanks to the reporting of Gary Kavanagh at Gript media. I am referring to the vacant home grant scheme. In his investigation into this matter, Gary Kavanagh has shown that, due to a dispute between the Government and the banks, only one applicant for the vacant property grant, where €50,000 to €70,000 was promised to renovate vacant or derelict property, received any grant money in the scheme's first nine months of operation. This effectively means the key plank of the Government's housing policy has proven itself to be absolutely worthless for the better part of an entire year, which time was entirely wasted.

During that time, however, the Minister, and indeed all of those in government, never stopped in their praise of the scheme as a key policy aimed at increasing the available housing stock. At no point, it seems, did the Minister, or any other member of Government highlight that fact to ordinary people, that their ability to actually draw down the money from the vacant home grant was next to impossible thanks to the dispute between the Government and the banks. The banks were unwilling to provide mortgages on the basis of the scheme's tough terms and conditions. I will end on that note.

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae

I am glad to get the opportunity to speak. Planning is hurting a great number of people in our county who cannot get planning to build houses for themselves. It is the Government Planning Regulator who is the cause of this. These people just want planning permission. They will build the house themselves and they will foot the bill, as dear as it is, but they are not getting the planning permission.

Voids are the next issue and I have been talking about these for the past six or eight months. In a place called Gneevgullia, there are five vacant houses and four of them are in that condition for more than three years. There is a house in an estate in Killarney that is vacant for more than four years. Can you imagine that? The reason that house is vacant is because the local authority will only give €11,000 and the house will cost up to €100,000 to bring it back into use. That is not good enough. The local authorities do not have the money, whatever the spin the Government is putting on it.

On renting, landlords - I do not like calling them landlords but prefer calling them house owners - are getting out because of the regulations and the fact that when they want their house back, they cannot get it back. On the eviction ban, I am sorry to say to Sinn Féin, but I do not support it because that hurts the renting and will hurt it further. The Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, is causing so much hardship for house owners who have been renting their houses and they are getting out because of that board.

Then there is the issue of the sewerage in our towns and villages. People who cannot get planning permission out the country, who are locals themselves, cannot get it inside in the towns and villages either because there is no treatment plant. That has been highlighted by several Deputies in the House and the Government is not taking it to heart.

Deputy Michael Healy-Rae

First of all, I thank and acknowledge Sinn Féin for raising this very important matter here this evening. It was ironic to be above inside in the office listening to everybody's contribution. Some of the loudest voices I heard inside in the Chamber this evening all have one thing in common. They are all serial objectors in their own constituencies. They have not objected to ten or to 100 but to thousands of houses being built. If those houses had not been objected to, they might have been built more quickly, and many of them have not seen the light of day because they were stopped and scuppered. The objections were like Scud missiles which were blown off the planning sheet, and these houses were never developed, so those families who could be living in those houses today are not. That is another thing caused by their faceless objections. They increased the cost of housing because if any development is slowed down or stopped, all that is being done is ensuring that if the development does go ahead, it will be more expensive. These objections may have been well intentioned, but I am not so sure if an objector believes they are well intentioned, because I would never be able to understand that and if you wants houses, you cannot be objecting to them at the same time.

A short number of months ago, I voted against the eviction ban being ended. I am glad I did so because I know the 12 people I met over this weekend's clinics in Kerry who have received notices to quit are not happy they are in that position now. I feel bad about that because they would not be facing leaving their homes if that eviction ban had been allowed to stay in place.

I say, however, that where the Government is really dropping the ball is the continuous attack on people own property and who are an integral part of this. Incidentally, I apologise to the Chair because I did not declare my interest in this matter, which I should have done it at the very beginning and I am doing so now. I like to think, however, that my own experience leaves me in a good position to be able to talk about this. People who own property are leaving the rental market in their droves and will continue to do so unless the Government does something to address those issues. These have been very clearly laid out to the Minister of State. If the Government does not do something about that, there will be no such thing as private rented accommodation. We cannot be relying on the State because the State has proven, and not just this Government but previous governments, that it is incapable of providing the housing we need. These are the types of problems we need to address.

Deputy Catherine Connolly

I am sharing time with Deputy Joan Collins.

At the outset I declare my interest. My interest is in preventing housing being treated as a commodity to be traded on the market, in standing behind a policy and a government that treats housing as a basic human right, and that we build public housing of the highest standard. That is my declared interest before I use up my few minutes.

I thank Sinn Féin, although I do have some difficulties about some parts of the motion but I certainly fully endorse the ban on rent increases over three years and a temporary reintroduction of the ban on evictions, with which I have absolutely no problem. Time, unfortunately, will not allow me to go into my difficulties with the in situ tenancy or with another aspect of the motion with regard to emergency planning. I tremble at the thought of giving more powers to the Government.

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing the motion and for putting the spotlight, once again, on the consequences of successive Government policy. This policy has led to a situation where houses are not affordable. All of the Government policies, including the housing assistance payment, HAP, and the tenant in situ scheme, operate together to keep prices artificially high.

None of this should be happening. It is all a piecemeal without an overall picture - an overall picture for me being public housing where the prices of houses, including the price of my own house, must come down if we are serious about housing as a human right.

In Galway city, rents increased by 19.4% last year and the increase of 13.8% in the county was nearly as high. In the city, 263 are homeless. Earlier today I briefly referred to a homeless person in a wheelchair who arrived at my office yesterday with nowhere to go. As we know from the task force, which I will come back to, the homeless services are under extreme pressure and there is currently a waiting list for dealing with people in homelessness. When we ask how long that is, they tell us "How long is a piece of string?". I know the Minister of State will not give me that answer, but I brought this up with the Taoiseach earlier today and his answer was simply without any understanding - deliberately or not, I do not know - of what it is like to be homeless in a wheelchair and with nowhere to go. I am not given to using individual cases because we have enough information on a general level to tell us the policies of this Government and previous governments are absolutely disastrous.

Very helpfully, every three months the Simon Community issues a report entitled Locked Out of the Market. One is due; we are still waiting on it. The last four reports have consistently shown no properties available to rent through HAP or any category in Galway city or suburbs. That has been going on for years.

Parallel with that, we have major land in Galway, in the docks area, Ceannt Station, Sandy Road and elsewhere, with no master plan. I repeat for the record, there is no master plan. Ceannt Station is doing its own thing and the docks area is doing its own thing. I know from the task force that the harbour will produce a master plan sometime in the future and, as part of that, the public land owned by it will be used for affordable housing. It will not be public housing or social housing but affordable housing of a particular category to suit whatever plan it will produce, but no master plan.

A task force was set up in 2019, but we have no report from it although the Minister told me he has it and, in due course, it will be revealed to me. Like the Book of Revelations from the Bible, all will be revealed in due course. I certainly have a sense of outrage at a task force set up in 2019 and no report from it. I would have thought that, other than regular presentations, it would have come back with an analysis of what the problems are in Galway, what the constraints are, a focus on the absence of a master plan and so on. However, we have nothing. I do not want to be negative; I want public housing and public land. I want choices for people so they can afford to buy a house or rent a house for life, because security of tenure is vital.

The Government is pushing the tenant in situ scheme. Obviously, as an emergency measure I will not object to it. However, in Galway where a house might be valued at €190,000 and the landlord wants something like €250,000 with €50,000 in the difference, the local authority understandably says it will not buy and yet we are pushing to buy it. All we are doing is keeping the prices of houses artificially high.

Deputy Joan Collins

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this motion. It is vital we come back to the housing emergency before the Dáil breaks up this week so that the Government is not allowed off the hook for a desperate situation thousands are facing throughout the country. The Government made the summer recess as long as it could this summer because it knows every moment we are not in here is another missed chance to hold the Government to account for its increasingly obvious failures with regard to housing, our health system, the cost of living and all the crises across our public services.

The housing emergency has become a national disgrace. It has been caused by the failed policies of successive governments under Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Green Party and the Labour Party. They have slavishly placed the market and profit making at the heart of housing policy. They prioritised the banks', developers' and speculators' ability to make money over people's ability to afford safe, secure homes. They stopped building public homes because the people they represent, the wealthy, could not profit from it. They privatised house building, the maintenance of the public housing stock and now, with 72,000 HAP tenancies last year, it has even privatised the provision of public housing. Those 72,000 households should be housed in secure high-quality public housing but instead face insecurity of tenancy, vulnerable situations with landlords and, in many cases, substandard housing.

Last month we all received a joint press release from the four Dublin local authorities. They are seeking that all developers and builders with planning-approved land on which construction has not started or has been paused would apply to sell all future properties on those sites to local authorities. It is estimated this could provide up to 55,000 homes in Dublin alone. Why are we seeking applications? Why has the Government not gone in to provide the funds already or, better still, bought that land and started building on it through local authorities or the Land Development Agency, LDA? It shows the Government is still trying to fix this crisis with policy and ideology that got us here in the first place. There is no urgency, no recognition of this emergency, and no recognition of the poverty, overcrowding and desperation the housing emergency is causing. It still wants a private solution to a public problem. It is still placing the need of the market to return massive profits above people's need to have home.

The Government's housing policy is failing even by its own metrics. We have had three years of missed social housing targets, hundreds of millions of euro in underspend on housing, hundreds of sites with planning permission but no active construction, and ten months in a row with record homeless numbers. It set up woefully inadequate housing targets and even missed them. Rents have been spiralling out of control for years. They have increased by 23% since the Government was formed, with average rents now €1,507 a month nationally. That is more than €18,000 euro year, which does not even guarantee tenants any sort of security in their home.

The Government lifted the eviction ban which allowed more than 15,000 notices to quit to come into force. The Taoiseach has said the eviction ban did not work. I would like to see him say that face to face to any of the tens of thousands of people facing eviction because of the lifting of the ban. As I am sure other Deputies and even the Minister of State have, I have received countless emails and had calls to my office from people who are facing eviction and are desperate because they have nowhere to go.

I will be supporting the motion. There are more than 12,000 people in emergency accommodation, with 3,699 of them children. That does not even take into account the thousands more sleeping in their cars. I have come across men holding down jobs and sleeping in their cars, people on the street, and people couch surfing in the homes of friends or family. With so many people homeless and many more facing that prospect, it is a disgrace the Government would table an amendment defending this situation.

Over successive governments, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Green Party and the Labour Party created this crisis. They put the market's need to make money ahead of the ability of people to find homes. They prioritised private interest over the national good. They ended a programme of public housing because there is no profit to be made from it and now people are living with the consequences. I support public housing on public land developed by a public construction company.

On Saturday while out canvassing in Drimnagh, I spoke to a young woman who has been on the housing list for 20 years. She is in a HAP tenancy at the moment. It is absolutely outrageous that people's lives and the lives of their children are still dependent on a landlord to provide them with a roof over their heads and they have no security.

Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Deputy Malcolm Noonan)

I will go through some of the issues the Deputies raised. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan raised the different application of the tenant in situ scheme across local authorities. Deputy Boyd Barrett also raised the matter. I will look into that. This is the responsibility of local authorities. The Government designed the scheme but it is up to local authorities to implement it . The Deputy gave a long list of testimonies. If there are any issues he wants to raise with us regarding specific cases, he should certainly bring them to us or bring them the relevant local authority.

Deputy Boyd Barrett raised the issue of families in long-term homelessness. It is absolutely a priority for Government and for local authorities to try to address that. The Deputy also spoke about the inconsistencies in cost-rental income limits. There are a range of supports across all income thresholds, including the First Home scheme. Again, we can liaise with local authorities.

Deputy Mick Barry referred to Noonan's Road flats and the condition they are in. It sounds appalling and we urge Cork City Council to continue to engage positively. My colleague, Councillor Dan Boyle, was there with residents today. Trying to address those issues is critical. It is unacceptable that people live in those conditions.

Deputy Canney referred to the concrete levy, the tenant in situ scheme and Croí Cónaithe, in the context of their being positive, as well as the release of homes for those in full-time care. I will raise that matter with the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. The planning and development Bill will address many of the planning issues to which the Deputy referred.

Deputy Tóibín mentioned people dying in homelessness outside of Dublin not being recorded. That is the responsibility of the Department of Health.

Deputy Mattie McGrath referred to the capacity of wastewater treatment plants in our towns and villages. What he said is not the case. We have invested significantly in Uisce Éireann's capacity to deliver not just for the large urban conglomerations but also for the smaller schemes in towns and villages. That is happening at pace.

Deputy Michael Collins spoke about the Green Party driving people out of rural Ireland. I do not know what the hell that was about.

Deputy Nolan referred to the vacant homes grant scheme and voids. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae also spoke about voids. The matter he raised is one for Kerry County Council.

I will take on board the issues raised by Deputy Connolly regarding Galway in the context of house prices and master planning. The latter is the responsibility of the local authority.

Deputy Joan Collins made the point the people this Government represents are the wealthy. That is not the case; we represent everybody.

The issue of the public construction company was referred to by Deputy Boyd Barrett in oral questions last week. We would be talking about five years to develop legislation. I do not see a need for it. The LDA is in place. I am not sure what the merits of a public construction company would be.

I reiterate the Minister’s comments on the importance the Government places on addressing the housing crisis. We know it is having a real impact on the lives of people and we understand how urgent and critical it is to ensure that people have safe, secure and affordable homes. We understand the importance of this in terms of social and economic impacts, as well as on the well-being of individuals, families, the wider community and the nation as a whole. That is why we have a plan, which is starting to take hold. Housing for All is that plan. I acknowledge the support for the plan and the significant work done to date in addressing the challenges in housing.

What has Housing for All achieved to date? There have been many initiatives that have benefited the people we represent. They have benefited as a result of the plan and the non-stop efforts we have made since taking office. There has been a monumental overhaul of practically every aspect of our housing system, from the consolidation and clarification of the planning environment to all the efforts we have made to get this country building and the ongoing review of the private rental sector. We are not finished as we know far too many people are not feeling the effects yet. Mar, tá a fhios agam go mbaineann na Teachtaí úsáid as an seanfhocal chomh minic agus is féidir, is é an ceann: tús maith leath na hoibre. We need to continue this work and embed all the initiatives the Government has created to continue to effect real change that will have an impact on the delivery of housing and on people’s lives.

The motion calls for an expansion and acceleration of the delivery of affordable homes, and we agree. We have to remember that many of the streams now delivering homes simply did not exist until we passed the Affordable Housing Act. From a starting point of zero to the almost 1,800 affordable homes delivered last year, these homes would not have happened without Housing for All. Schemes established through the plan, such as the local authority affordable purchase scheme and first home scheme, have resulted in homes now being lived in by families and individuals. More needs to be done. However, that to which I refer is proof that the plan is delivering much-needed homes that would not exist without it.

We have an expanded local authority home loan that has been made as accessible and applicable to as many people as possible. Along with help to buy and delivery from our partners such as local authorities, approved housing bodies and the LDA, the suite of affordable measures in Housing for All will make homeownership achievable for tens of thousands of people across the country.

The motion calls for changes to the rental market. We know it has not worked for either tenants or landlords at times. That is why we have commenced a comprehensive review of the private rental sector. The public consultation phase of the review was launched a few weeks ago and the Department held a constructive workshop with stakeholders last week. The deadline for submissions has been extended to 8 August in order to ensure that everyone has a chance to provide feedback. We are constantly listening to constructive feedback and making changes where we can. We have further limited the rent increases in RPZs to a maximum of 2%, half of what was allowed before the Government took office, and have introduced tenancies of unlimited duration.

The motion calls for a rental tax credit, which we introduced in the last budget and which can be claimed every year until 2025. This tax credit is worth €1,000 to renters this year, as they can claim in retrospect for 2022.

The motion highlights last year’s underspend. It is true there were significant challenges, including war in Europe and the lasting effects of the global pandemic, which impacted on spending. Despite this, 2022 saw the highest capital spend ever for the Vote of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, an overall increase of 28% on 2021. Over 93% of the 2022 capital provision, including capital carryover, was spent. In 2022, we had the highest level of housing expenditure ever in a single year, at almost €3.5 billion. This year continues to see further record investment in housing, with total Exchequer funding of €4 billion to deliver housing programmes, including €2.6 billion in capital funding and €1.4 billion in current funding. Overall, €4.5 billion will be available for capital investment in housing. This is the highest level of funding dedicated to housing in the history of the State.

Tackling vacancy and dereliction was one of the top priorities for the Government during the drafting of the plan and Housing for All has delivered on that front. The vacant property refurbishment grants proved enormously popular and the grant rates were increased earlier this year. The grants can also be combined with the SEAI better energy homes scheme, which covers works of just under €27,000. Along with the vacancy action plan, the rural regeneration and development and urban regeneration and development funds and the vacant homes tax, Housing for All has transformed the vacancy landscape and will see thousands of homes returned to use that would be lying idle.

The motion highlights how we need capacity for businesses to expand and cannot limit the potential investment in new jobs. We agree. The Government in the plan has committed to balancing regional development and ensuring businesses have the housing and infrastructure they need. That is why we have begun the revision process for the national planning framework, NPF, which sets out the policies and objectives essential to achieving proper planning and sustainable development. The NPF is at an early stage of its implementation and this revision demonstrates that we constantly monitor our plans and strategies to see if they need to be revised upwards. This revision will enable us to account not just for the inadequate housing needs of our people to thrive but also for the infrastructure policies and guiding principles that will underpin our development strategy for years to come.

The overarching and ultimate solution for those who cannot afford their own homes or business owners worried about their capacity to expand is to increase supply as much as possible. That is why we recently announced a number of new measures to boost supply and get the nation building. This includes a 12-month time-limited exemption from development levies and water connection fees brought in to stimulate construction and get things moving.

We have increased the grant rates for the aforementioned vacant property refurbishment grant by €20,000 for both vacant and derelict homes, widening the net and returning even more homes to use. We are also finalising our new cost-rental viability measure to activate existent planning permissions, particularly in the build-to-rent sector, and make the resulting supply of rental homes more affordable.

We all want the same thing: to provide secure, sustainable and affordable homes for everyone who needs them. That is why we need Housing for All. We have made clear progress, built and sustained momentum and have an extremely solid foundation on which to build for the future. The reforms we have introduced have taken time precisely because they are so comprehensive and far-reaching. I believe we want the same thing. This is the Government’s plan. It is comprehensive and detailed. We will continue to listen to feedback and seek ways to improve. One thing that will never change is the core message of the plan and driving aim of my Department and the Government as a whole: to provide well-built affordable housing for all.

Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh

People in Mayo will be really worried when they hear that the Minister of State and the Government are not finished yet, honest to God, because what he read out bears no relation to what I and my staff deal with every day in Mayo. The average price of a home in Mayo has increased by €10,000 since last year. People are desperately trying to save enough money to buy a secure home in a cost-of-living crisis, but they are watching as the goalposts move further and further away. At the same time, they are being squeezed by the rising cost of rent. The average rent for a three-bedroom house in Mayo has increased by 45% since the Government took office three years ago. For others, it is a struggle to even find somewhere to rent. Today there are only 18 properties for rent in the whole of County Mayo, and most of them are out of reach and unaffordable for too many people.

This is the legacy of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. We cannot let it become normal. Lives are being destroyed and people are living in fear. When we look at the homeless figures, there are 3,699 children and 12,441 adults those do not even show the real extent of the problem because we do not even have any more emergency accommodation in Mayo. The Government lifted the ban and it has not even increased emergency homeless accommodation by one iota. That is why there are people living in cars. I have a case of a single man who is homeless and living in his car. He is unlikely to be housed by the local authority for a very long time and has no emergency accommodation. I am dealing with another case involving a single parent and their three children who are being evicted. They have been unable to access emergency accommodation, so they will be given bed and breakfast accommodation vouchers for Castlebar. It is not right what is happening to people in my county - the county of Michael Davitt. It is absolutely deplorable. Among all that there are people who have to find rental places because they are impacted by pyrite and their houses are falling down so they have to move out.

Millions are being announced but even the housing aid for older people has no money. There is no money in the local authority. There is nothing for them. There are people with their roofs leaking and elderly people who are in poor health, but there is no money. Will the Minister of State please look and see what is going on?

Deputy Mairéad Farrell

The crisis in the rental sector and the housing emergency affect every part of our society. It affects every household and family. The Government always says that people want to rent and that they should have the opportunity to do so. There is one cohort of people who are really reliant on the rental sector, namely, students. Today I met with representatives of the Union of Students in Ireland. Its prebudget submission was all about housing. Of course the housing emergency impacts on students. It used be that groups of a few students in Galway could come together and rent a house but because of the housing crisis, that is long gone. So many young people are locked out of third level education because they cannot afford the fees under this Government or housing by any stretch. The Government’s solution to this is to build unaffordable accommodation. It tells us that it is bringing forward student accommodation but it is at rents that students simply cannot afford.

The other matter on which the Government is focusing is digs. When I was in college 12 years ago, digs were an option. And it is a fantastic option, especially for first years going into a new place. But this is the Government’s solution. It terrifies me that there is no regulation or protection for students. Student after student, and student union after student union tell me there is no regulation. They say there is no notice period. I heard of one fellow having to leave in the middle of the night. There is no lock on the door so people can come in and out of rooms. Students have to leave their digs early on a Friday morning and cannot come back until Monday morning. There are all sorts of things. Digs are an important part of a housing solution for students but they are not the only solution.

The Government loves to tell us it is prudent but it is giving a tax relief of €14,000 and does not even have protections or regulations in place for the students who are living there. It has to be sensible and workable for those renting out their rooms but there must be protections for students.

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

The line Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, repeated the line used by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste earlier today that the Government's housing plan is working. While the Minister of State did not use that phrase, he indicated that he believes the plan is moving in the right direction. Let us just look at the facts, because the Minister of State is not a man who does not take what he says in this Chamber lightly. He has been in government for three years. During that period, homelessness increased by 39%. Then there is child homelessness. On the Minister of State's watch, the number of children in emergency accommodation has increased by 44% and yet he stated that the Government’s plan is moving in the right direction. He cannot believe the words he read out.

The Green Party leader and Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, along with the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage launched a 75-page progress report for the first and second quarters of this year. Did they tell us in that report how many new social homes have been delivered in the first six months of the year? No, they did not. Did they tell us the number of genuinely affordable homes to rent or buy that have been delivered in the first six months of this year? Did they outline the actual number of properties bought by local authorities and approved housing bodies under the tenant in situ scheme to prevent homelessness? Did they tell us the actual number of vacant or derelict properties brought back into active use by any of the schemes that the Minister of State mentioned in the first six months of this year? No, they did not. Why would the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, the leader of the Green Party and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage launch a 75-page report on so-called progress when they could not report on any of the things that would make a difference in respect of this crisis? The reason they did not answer any of those questions is because if they did, it would be patently clear that there has been no progress. In fact, the most telling thing about this was that it took place during the much-anticipated testimony of Ryan Tubridy and his agent in front of an Oireachtas committee. If there was ever a definition of a blatantly cynical move by the Government to hide its lack of progress on the single biggest social issue affecting society today, that was it, and the Minister of State comes in here and he stands over that? We work well on so many other issues. However, the Minister of State cannot come here week after week and trot out these lines and expect us to take him seriously.

There has never been a time in modern history when it has been so difficult to be a renter. Tenants are less secure, they are paying higher rents and they are more at risk of homelessness. What are we proposing today to tackle the deepening crisis for private renters? First, we propose an emergency three-year ban on rent increases for all renters, existing tenants, new tenants and new rental properties. We are proposing a real refundable tax credit to put a full month’s rent back in every renters pocket, which all renters can avail of. This is not the paltry €500 credit that the Government has offered which only half the renters in the State have been able to avail of. We have talked about real, emergency measures using emergency planning and procurement powers, targeting new building technologies and vacant homes to provide an additional supply of social and affordable homes, targeting those people trapped in emergency accommodation - single people, pensioners and parents with children – to dramatically reduce the numbers in emergency accommodation and alleviate the crisis. We have also called for the reintroduction of the ban on no-fault evictions until such time as the numbers of people in emergency accommodation falls. This is something that is commonplace, in fact is standard, in many European countries. Then finally, yet again, we have said that the Government needs to increase the funding for social and affordable housing. It needs to increase the targets and cut the red tape that is strangling the life out of our local authorities and approved housing bodies to deliver those much-needed homes. Of course, the Government will not do any of that.

One of the things on which I disagree most with the Minister of State is his final comment to the effect that we all want the same thing. I do not want what he wants. I want Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party out of office as quickly as is humanly possible. Fine Gael has been in government for 11 years. Fianna Fáil, which has propped up Fine Gael, has effectively been in government for seven years. The Green Party has been propping up Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael for the past three years, and the housing crisis has never been worse. What does that tell us after all of that time and after all of those plans and initiatives? It tells us that the Government has created this crisis. It was created by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and is being perpetuated by the Green Party. The only way we can turn this around and start to provide the social and affordable homes that people need it getting these people out of office and bringing forward a housing plan that is going to do something very simple: build a volume of social and affordable homes that is commensurate with the level of need. This Government will not do that. The sooner it realises this and the sooner we get it out of office, the better, particularly for those adults and children that have become homeless under the Minister of State’s watch and that of his colleagues. I commend the motion to the House.

Amendment put.

An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach (Deputy Pauline Tully)

The division is deferred until the weekly division time tomorrow evening.

Dáil Éireann debate - Tuesday, 11 Jul 2023

Housing and Homelessness: Motion [Private Members]

Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 11 Jul 2023