Affordable Housing: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members]
The following motion was moved by Deputy Cian O'Callaghan on Thursday, 21 September 2023:
That Dáil Éireann:
notes that:
— the cost of buying a home has increased by more than 25 per cent since this Government came into office;
— it now costs almost €330,000 on average to buy a home, an increase of more than €66,000 since 2020 and €90,000 since 2017;
— the median income for first-time buyers of new homes is now more than €90,000 and more than €103,000 in Dublin;
— there are more than 520,000 adults living in their childhood bedrooms, a 14 per cent rise since 2016, and a 19 per cent increase since Fine Gael took office in 2011;
— the rate of home ownership is continuing to decline and is at a 30-year low;
— the share of 25-34 year-olds who own their own home more than halved between 2004 and 2019, falling from 60 per cent to just 27 per cent; and
— rent prices are at record highs, having more than doubled in a decade and having increased by more than 20 per cent since this Government took office;
acknowledges that:
— a lack of affordable housing is forcing adults to live at home, which can have a negative impact on mental health, self-esteem, employment prospects, the ability to form and maintain relationships and connection to communities;
— a lack of affordable housing is having a negative impact on the economy, resulting in staffing shortages across the public and private sectors;
— these staffing shortages are particularly acute when it comes to teachers, nurses, Gardaí and other important public sector workers in urban areas; and
— a lack of affordable housing is forcing students to defer college places or change third-level education plans;
further notes that:
— zero affordable purchase homes were delivered in 2020;
— zero affordable purchase homes were delivered in 2021;
— just 323 affordable purchase homes were delivered in 2022;
— the Government missed its target for the delivery of affordable purchase and Cost Rental homes by 70 per cent in 2022;
— the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage failed to spend €1 billion of his capital budget between 2020 and 2022; and
— adult homelessness has increased by more than 40 per cent since this Government took office and child homelessness is up by 44 per cent; and
calls on the Government to:
— publish figures for the delivery of affordable homes in 2023;
— increase the target for affordable purchase and Cost Rental homes to 10,000 homes per year;
— introduce a punitive tax on vacancy;
— reinstate the ban on no-fault evictions to protect renters from homelessness; and
— stop investing public money in the delivery of private rental-only developments that are unaffordable to rent and unavailable to buy.
Debate resumed on amendment No. 1:
To delete all the words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:
"notes that Housing for All: A New Housing Plan is firmly focussed on re-establishing a sustainable housing delivery system capable of delivering for current and emerging needs and the Government:
— is actively working to improve Ireland's housing system and deliver more homes of all tenures for people with varying housing needs, including first-time buyers, renters, low-income households, and people experiencing homelessness;
— has a vision for the housing system over the longer term to achieve a steady supply of housing in the right locations with economic, social and environmental sustainability built into the system with four pathways to achieving housing for all:
— supporting home ownership and increasing affordability;
— eradicating homelessness, increasing social housing delivery and supporting social inclusion;
— increasing new housing supply; and
— addressing vacancy and efficient use of existing stock;
— is successfully increasing new housing supply, with a combination of public and private sector development, through State-led investment in expanded social and affordable housing programmes; and
— is removing barriers that impede the private sector capacity to deliver at scale, critical to the successful implementation of Housing for All: A New Housing Plan, and which will yield housing affordability and reverse the historic decline in home ownership;
welcomes:
— that housing supply is increasing, and will continue to be increased incrementally and sustainably;
— that Housing for All: A New Housing Plan is succeeding in its objective of increasing overall housing supply in a robust and sustainable manner; and in 2022, almost 30,000 homes were built, an increase of 45.2 per cent from 2021, and 5,250 homes or 21 per cent higher than the Housing for All: A New Housing Plan target of 24,600; and the first half of 2023 has seen 14,017 home completions, the highest for this period since the Central Statistics Office (CSO) data series began in 2011;
— the fact that new home commencements continue to out-perform expectations following the strong uptick in commencements recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022; 18,500 new homes were commenced between January and July this year, up 12 per cent on the same period last year; and this strong commencement activity, and a recent upward trend in planning permissions, indicates that the uplift in 2022 house building activity is likely to be maintained in 2023, when delivery of 29,000 homes is anticipated, and sustained into 2024 and 2025;
— the fact that 10,263 social homes were delivered in 2022 (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 social housing since 1975;
— the fact that 40,000 more families are in social housing than ten years ago and the proportion of people in social housing has increased in the past ten years;
— the record growth in mortgage drawdowns by first-time buyers, with drawdowns at their highest level since 2007 running at 400-500 per week;
— the fact that the proportion of adults living with their parents has remained stable at 13 per cent since 2011;
— the fact that more households own their own home than ever before, at over 1.2 million;
— the fact that a record €4.5 billion in State housing investment in 2023 will ensure the substantial uplift in supply in 2022 can be maintained and exceeded, with 9,100 direct build social homes and 5,500 affordable homes to be delivered; and
— the fact that new measures announced by the Government in April 2023 will further boost the improved levels of housing activity, such as:
— reducing the cost of construction by scrapping the development levies required to connect new homes with roads, water and other services, and subsidising development levies, saving up to the value of €12,650 per home on average – this will reduce the cost of building a home and will apply for a limited time only to act as an incentive;
— increasing the pace at which vacant and derelict properties are renovated for new housing by enhancing grants available to cut the cost of restoring empty homes and making it easier to apply – from May 2023 the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant has been:
— increased from €30,000 to €50,000 for vacant properties;
— increased from €50,000 to €70,000 for derelict properties;
— extended to cover houses built up to 2007; and
— made available for properties intended for rental as well as owner-occupation; and
— the Government is supporting the construction of affordable apartments for Cost Rental and facilitating the commencement of thousands of affordable apartments to rent, which have planning permission but which are not being progressed – with a substantial subsidy for a limited time only to speed up construction; and the Secure Tenancy Affordable Rental investment (STAR) scheme, along with a revision of the terms of the Cost Rental Equity Loan, which increased the level of overall State funding on a sliding scale basis to up to 55 per cent of capital costs, were launched in July and are now receiving applications; and STAR is targeted at all private market operators, including the Land Development Agency, and is underpinned by a Government commitment of up to €750 million to deliver 4,000 Cost Rental units at more affordable rent; and
supports the Government housing policy which is succeeding in restoring the first-time buyer to playing a key role in the new and existing house sales market, and is actively assisting and supporting individuals and families on modest incomes to purchase their own home at an affordable price as evidenced by:
— the launch of the Help to Buy (HTB) Scheme in 2017 which has, to date, assisted over 41,000 first-time buyer households to secure a new home and has been extended to 2024;
— the CSO Residential Property Price Index underlining the substantial growth in first-time buyer activity - some 17,220 homes, including circa 5,280 new homes, were purchased by first-time buyers in the year to July 2023 – an 8 per cent increase on the previous year and one-third of all homes purchased by households in the period;
— recent Banking and Payment Federation of Ireland figures illustrating record growth in mortgage drawdowns by first-time buyers, with drawdowns currently at their highest level since 2007;
— the 'Owner Occupier Guarantee', under which local authorities can now designate a specified number of units in a development for first-time buyers and owner occupiers; and in May 2021 changes were also made to the rate of stamp duty payable on bulk purchases and new planning guidelines were issued to prevent inappropriate investment in homes and duplexes and to ensure household purchasers, and social or affordable housing are not displaced by inappropriate commercial activity – some 31,000 homes received planning permission with conditions prohibiting bulk purchase by, or multiple sale to, a single purchaser in the two years from May 2021 to May 2023;
— the First Home Scheme, launched on 7th July, 2022, which supports first-time buyers in purchasing new houses and apartments in the private market through the use of an equity share model; and according to the most recent scheme data available, some 6,000 applicants have registered and over 2,362 applicants have been approved under the scheme and received eligibility certificates; and interest in First Homes is strong, with new applications for approval showing a strong momentum and the scheme will continue to be central to the overall affordable housing response nationwide;
— delivery of the first Local Authority Affordable Purchase homes in a generation in 2022, which saw 323 homes delivered for approved affordable housing applicants on a shared equity basis, and the growing pipeline of homes with Affordable Housing Fund approval for delivery as affordable purchase homes, which currently stands at over 2,700 homes across 19 local authorities, and continues to be expanded and developed; and
— the Croí Cónaithe (Cities) Scheme which will support the building of up to 5,000 apartments for sale to owner-occupiers;
further notes that affordable housing supply at scale will continue to be developed and expanded through the mix of new and extended initiatives now in place and operating effectively, including the First Home scheme, local authority-provided affordable purchase schemes, the HTB initiative and the expanded Local Authority Home Loan; and taken together, the suite of affordable measures will make homeownership achievable for tens of thousands of individuals and families during the lifetime of Housing for All: A New Housing Plan;
acknowledges the close monitoring of the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004-2022, and the operation of the rental market by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Residential Tenancies Board and the Housing Agency and further acknowledges that:
— a comprehensive review of the private rental sector is currently taking account of the significant regulatory changes in the residential rental market over the past several years; and the review is essential to planning future policy for the residential rented sector and will report on how our housing system can be enhanced to provide an efficient, affordable, viable, safe and secure framework for both tenants and landlords;
— current private rental market challenges cannot be resolved without the combined benefits of public and private investment;
— some €13.5 billion of development finance is required each year to achieve the current average Housing for All: A New Housing Plan target output of 33,000 homes annually, with the vast majority of this required from private sources and – alongside public investment – is the only way to deliver the housing needed at substantial scale;
— institutional investment is a critical piece of this overall investment – it is a normal facet of housing systems across Europe and beyond and without it activity in the housing market would be much reduced and the pressure already facing renters and prospective home-owners would increase significantly;
— an important role has been played by this investment, particularly in the development of new high-density urban housing in recent years, and the importance of maintaining this investment;
— the Government has strengthened regulatory controls on short-term lets and approval has been given for the priority drafting of the Registration of Short-Term Tourist Letting Bill and publication of the General Scheme of the Bill; and the legislation will deliver on the Housing for All: A New Housing Plan objective to make more efficient use of existing housing stock with the establishment of the Fáilte Ireland registration system;
— rental affordability continues to be a priority concern for the Government; and Cost Rental accommodation was introduced by this Government as a new form of housing tenure in Ireland offering long-term security of tenure at cost-based rents that are at least 25 per cent below the private market rate for comparable properties;
— to date, 770 Cost Rental homes have been delivered by Approved Housing Bodies, Local Authorities and the Land Development Agency; and over 1,400 local authority Cost Rental units (across 12 projects) have been approved to date for assistance totalling €150 million from the Affordable Housing Fund, including 50 units already delivered at Enniskerry Road; and the pipeline of Cost Rental homes will continue to be developed and expanded on an ongoing basis; and
— there has also been an extension of the Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) system to 2024 and a 2 per cent rent cap; and
accepts that Housing for All: A New Housing Plan is an iterative and responsive action-based plan that is not limited to or confined by implementation of its original suite of 213 measures which are subject to regular monitoring and review, with updated and new measures being added as and when required and welcomes:
— the second annual review of Housing for All: A New Housing Plan actions currently underway and this process will conclude and the next Housing for All Action Plan Update will be published following the Budget in October; and
— the proposed refreshing of housing targets, including for social and affordable housing, having regard to the Census 2022 data and updated population and structural housing demand projections on foot of analysis being undertaken by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) for the National Planning Framework revision; and this work by the ESRI will be finalised in Spring 2024, paving the way for housing demand and needs to be reassessed and new targets to be revised later next year.".
-(Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage)
I thank Deputy Cian O'Callaghan and the Social Democrats for tabling this motion. I apologise for being late. I missed the opening statements by both Deputy O'Callaghan and the Minister, but if the Minister's response to Deputy O'Callaghan and this motion was anything like his response to the Labour Party leader, Deputy Bacik, or to Deputy Doherty earlier, I can only imagine it was another attempt at obfuscation and at denial of the facts of the housing crisis as it exists right now.
We are having a dispute about figures. There is not one inaccuracy or incorrect figure in this motion. Nothing in the motion about how badly our housing system is failing can be disputed. On three key levels and using three key measurements we can look at where the Government and the Minister are failing in housing. Homelessness has increased by 51.5% under the Minister's watch and that is not from day one. Even if we give him a year and take quarter 2 of 2021, the horrible figure of 8,475 people were homeless. Two years later in July 2023, the figure was 12,847. That is an increase of 51.5%. Rents have increased 21.3% since quarter 2 of 2021, again a year after the Minister took office. Two years later - that is three years in office in total - the average monthly rent was €1,792. It is worth repeating that €1,477 was by no means affordable in 2021, never mind the increases.
One key area the Minister has been harping on about in recent months is that he keeps saying house prices are decreasing. House prices are not decreasing. They have increased 17.6% since September 2021 when the average house price was €272,000. It is now €320,000. It was not affordable in September 2021 and it is even less so now that it has risen by 17.6%. We are not getting closer to affordability. We are moving further and further away. I met a young person in Swords recently. He is in his early twenties and living at home. He talked about work. He is well-educated and has great career opportunities. I asked him what he wants in life and he said he just wants to be able to afford his own home. It is as simple as that. Ask any young person at the moment. It is what they want and what they feel is furthest from their reach.
The housing system as it exists at the moment relies on the voluntary and charity sector. In a question to the Minister of State with responsibility for Health earlier, I raised the issue of the section 39 organisations which, along with the section 38 organisations, section 56 organisations and other voluntary bodies, are sustaining a creaking health service. The charity sector is sustaining the housing system. It is the charity and voluntary sectors that are coming in to meet the needs of the homeless. According to Depaul's 2022 annual report, it helped 7,400 people last year. That is just one charity. Some 1,600 of them were children, 763 families came through its services last year, and 14 babies were born into homelessness last year in the services of that one charity alone. Anyone who has engaged with homeless services, anyone working in the in sector and anyone who knows anything about the sector will tell you that if children are born into homelessness, they are at a much greater risk of slipping into homelessness as an adult. That is 14 children in one service born into homelessness last year who will be at much greater risk of falling into homelessness as an adult. Those cycles go from generation to generation. The Housing for All plan is not giving us any confidence that those cycles will be broken.
The targets in Housing for All that are not even being met are too low. We know from the Government's figures, from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, figures, that with population growth and other pressures that we need 50,000 to 60,000 homes to be built a year. The State is nowhere near meeting that need. If Housing for All is delivered in all its Deputy Darragh O'Brien glory, it will not come close to meeting that.
I welcome in this motion the proposal for a punitive tax on vacancy. Nothing angers, depresses and insults people as much as seeing a home, house, unit or apartment being vacant and unused, especially if it is owned by the State. There is no excuse for high levels of vacancy in State-owned housing units - none whatsoever. We got to a decent rate of turnaround a number of years ago and we are now back up to the worst it has ever been. It is an insult to people who are homeless or facing a risk of homelessness to see a vacant one-bedroom, two-bedroom, three bedroom or four-bedroom unit in their town or village.
The ban on no-fault evictions needs to be reinstated. The Government will say it did not work when it was in force. It absolutely did work. We know through our advice clinics and constituency offices that it was keeping roofs over people's heads and we are now working though an increasing number of cases of people who have hard notices to quit.
The tenant in situ scheme is not working. I want this point to come home. Estate agents, especially those who specialise in rentals, are turning away from it and they are the first port of call for landlords selling a home. They do not want to go anywhere near the State to sell the home.
In my experience, these rental agencies are an awful lot. There are people in my constituency who are being evicted. They may not have been born in Ireland and may not have great English. The landlords may be absentee landlords living abroad. There are rental agencies here that are trying to flip houses as quickly as possible on the open market. The tenants themselves may not be aware of this scheme. The council and the State are not even getting a sniff of buying these houses. Nothing is being done. No resources are being put into the council to ensure the owners of these houses are being approached to add them to the housing stock.
Domestic violence has exploded in the last couple of years since the Covid pandemic began, as seen in the number of presentations to citizens' advice centres, Women's Aid, shelters and Deputies' constituency offices. Again, no processes have been put in place in the Department of Social Protection with regard to rent supplement or in the housing assistance payment system to expedite such applications. I am dealing with many domestic violence cases where the application has gone into the same queue as everyone else's. Quite frankly, that is an absolute disgrace.
The Minister says the supply is coming on stream. When it does come on stream, there are two areas for which not enough provision is being made. One is housing for people with disabilities. We keep hearing that houses are being built that are wheelchair accessible. They may be wheelchair accessible but they are not wheelchair liveable. There is a big difference. If a bunch of 20, 40 or 60 bare two or three-bed units are to be handed over - which is fantastic - how many are going to be suitable for people, and particularly young children, who have disabilities and who are going to have lifelong needs? It is very few. It is then up to the councils to retrofit them. That is not good enough. This Government is asleep at the wheel on housing. This motion is absolutely excellent. We fully support it.
It is utterly shameful that 12,800 people, including 3,800 children, are in emergency accommodation. This is getting worse because of the Government's decision to lift the no-fault eviction ban. We urge the Government to urgently reinstate that ban. We will have a motion before the Dáil next Wednesday to seek the expediting of People Before Profit's Eviction Ban Bill 2022, which has passed Second Stage, and the reinstatement of the ban as a matter of urgency. The number of notices to quit issued between April and June was 5,735. That is 21% higher than the number issued in the first quarter of 2023. Exactly as we predicted, the number of people facing eviction is increasing as a result of the lifting of the eviction ban. The already shameful, disastrous and, for the people involved, torturous situation of facing homelessness and being evicted is set to get worse. When you would think it just could not be any worse, it is going to get worse. The Government has to act. All the obfuscation, promises and plans and attempted digs at the Opposition are meaningless to the people stuck in emergency accommodation or facing the traumatic prospect of being made homeless. The Government has to act urgently.
It also needs to act to deal with the trauma being suffered by those who are in emergency accommodation and who, in many cases, have no way out. Today, my office was in touch with a woman who is now three years in homeless accommodation. She has been in eight different locations during that time. She is a victim of domestic violence and has two children who have gone through all of that with her. Where is the assistance for that woman to get out of that situation? The answer is there is none. There is a case I have raised multiple times in the House over two to three years. I refer to a woman who has been sharing a bed with her child in emergency accommodation for four years. She has no way out because she is over the threshold for social housing. There is no cost-rental or affordable housing so she is absolutely trapped, as is her son, a teenager who has been sleeping in the same bed as his mother for four years. It is disgusting.
When we go to the council or to the Minister, all we get is "Sorry, the computer says 'nah'." The computer says "nah" and that these people do not fit into the scheme or tick the box. They are told "Sorry, there is nothing we can do" and they are left to rot. That attitude has to change. If nothing else, the Minister needs to tell local authorities that the "Computer says 'nah'" response to people in these situations has to end. We need a can-do attitude to get people who are suffering in that way out of homelessness rather than people being told that they do not fit the scheme and that they are going to be left to rot, which is what is going on.
The Minister of State may have read in the newspapers about a family. I managed to get a stay from the judge, and I thank the judge, for a family who is again over the threshold and who were evicted from the house where they have lived all of their lives. They do not tick all of the boxes and are therefore facing homelessness. This is the last chance saloon for them. In the next couple of months, there will be nowhere else to go. They are a working family and could pay a rent of €1,500 but if you search Daft for properties in our area, you will see that rents are €2,500. They are older. If they were younger, they could possibly get a local authority home loan or something like that but they cannot because he is 61 and she is 59 and the banks will not look at them. The local authority home loan is no good to them in buying a house, which would cost €650,000 in our area. What are they supposed to do if they become homeless? He has a heart condition and one of the children has special needs. They will be trapped in homelessness indefinitely because the computer says "nah" and that they do not fit. These are human beings. We need an attitude that says that is not acceptable, that we will move heaven and earth to make sure that people are not put into such a horrendous situation and that we will help every single one of those individuals who are trapped in that situation and prevent more people being driven into it. That is what needs to be done.
There are other things that need to be fixed. I am in favour of the tenant in situ scheme but it is not a substitute for building public and affordable housing. In Dún Laoghaire this week, we got a message from a landlord who was told the sale of his property had been agreed. He did not want to evict his tenant but had to sell the property. The council told him the sale was agreed, and this was at below market price because he did not want to evict the tenant, and now, in the last few weeks, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has, without any explanation, said that it is pulling out of the deal. It gave no explanation. The tenants are terrified and the landlord is asking what the hell is going on. It is yet again a case of the computer saying "nah"? The Government has to do something about this but, at the moment, there is no sense of urgency. That is why we will be having a rally outside the Dáil next Wednesday to support the Eviction Ban Bill.
I bring before the House the issue of mass evictions due to take place in Cork city this Christmas. The evictions are taking place at Chorister's House in Dean Street on Cork's south side, beside St. Fin Barre's Cathedral. Ironically, the evictions take place right next door to the constituency of Cork South-Central, which hosts three Government Ministers who voted to lift the eviction ban. The Ministers, Deputies Micheál Martin, Coveney and Michael McGrath, might be interested to learn that, in the wake of their decision to lift that ban, these tenants were issued with notices to quit at the end of May. Some were for 27 November and others for 10 January. Some of these tenants have left since the notices to quit were issued but a majority remain. Some of those tenants have lived at the house for more than ten years. Some are vulnerable people. One man who is due to be forced out in November is due to have surgery on a heart valve that same month. Where are these people expected to go? It is one thing to be evicted at Christmas; it is quite another to be evicted into homelessness at Christmas. The landlord wants to renovate the building in advance of a sale. The tenants have written to Cork City Council asking that the building be purchased under the tenant in situ scheme. They believe that necessary renovations can be carried out without the need for people to quit the premises by using vacant rooms on a rotating basis and filling the building when the renovations are complete.
A motion to activate the tenant in situ powers has been put forward by my colleague, Councillor Brian McCarthy, and I understand it is due to come before the council's housing committee on 3 October.
Choristers House, by the way, was built in 1760 to house the St. Fin Barre's Cathedral choir. It is a listed building. By purchasing this building and taking it into public ownership, Cork City Council would not only prevent people being evicted into homelessness this Christmas but it would place a historic building into the hands of the city and its people.
The bottom line is that affordable purchase and cost-rental homes are required immediately. Yes, the figures published in the Housing for All quarter 2 2023 progress report showed exceeded commencement targets but there are many people right now who do not have a home. In the most up-to-date homelessness report, there were 9,018 people accessing local emergency accommodation in Ireland. These homelessness figures underline, yet again, the need for an emergency housing budget in budget 2024. Various reasons are given for presenting as homeless, including the landlord selling the property, relationship breakdowns, overcrowding and rent arrears. Yet, while the Government's ten-year housing plan may bring relief in the long term, more immediate action is needed to relieve the burden on renters.
The private rented sector has virtually collapsed, and to see any significant reduction in those entering and exiting temporary accommodation highlights that investment in housing must be ramped up at a more rapid pace. The number of homes available to rent across the country remains low, with 21 properties available to rent in the whole of County Louth on daft.ie as of Tuesday of this week. This is a county with a population of 139,703 people.
The lack of new rental homes means that the imbalance between supply and demand is significantly evident. Not only that, many tenants face issues such as inadequate maintenance, substandard living conditions, and excessive rent increases.
Many people pay more in rent than they would if they had a mortgage. They are being crucified. No wonder families are presenting as homeless as a result of arrears. The average rent in Louth has risen by 12.1% to €1,624 in the past year according to the daft.ie Irish rental quarter 2 2023 report. This compares to €1,387 in quarter 1 of 2020 and a low of just €765 per month seen in late 2011. When faced with an acute shortage of rental homes, which shows little signs of abating, this must serve as a wake-up call to Government to work together to come up with innovative ideas for the provision of more homes.
Louth is not alone in experiencing these issues. It is coming up to the time of year when students moving away from home to go to college begin hunting for somewhere to live. The current housing crisis makes that more difficult than ever, whereby the sharp increase in rents around the country reflects a worsening of the unprecedented scarcity of rental homes. The rent-a-room scheme could prove successful but this incentive should be extended to people receiving social welfare payments, with a provision that they do not lose supplementary benefits, such as medical cards, if they rent out a room. It is also clear that, going into the winter period, pressure will remain on temporary accommodation services. Budget 2024 is an opportunity to raise housing supply targets and implement solutions in the interim to get people out of temporary accommodation and into homes as soon as possible.
Approved housing bodies will continue to play a key role in the delivery of affordable housing and must be resourced and financed adequately to reflect their potential and the role they play in providing housing solutions. Any capital budget underspend must be carried forward in addition to new budget allocations and made available for these much-needed housing projects. In fairness, Tuath Housing, in partnership with Louth County Council, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Housing Agency and the Housing Finance Agency, has announced the launch of the application process for Louth's first ever cost-rental homes. We need to see more funding allocated to these initiatives, which grant tenants long-term security of tenure, provide reassurance against rent fluctuations, and foster stability and a sense of community.
The scale of housing needs is such that we have to make progress on planning permissions and on housing projects that are well-designed. Data from the Construction Information Services identified that over 60,000 new residential units are tied up within planning appeals. Delays in planning permission, slow construction rates, and a lack of available land for development have contributed to the shortage. This has further driven up prices and rents. Daily, I meet constituents who have had planning requests rejected left, right and centre. There have been too many objections over recent years and those objections do not match the crisis.
From 2021, Louth’s planning permission requirements in rural areas, in comparison to the rest of the country, are very restrictive, especially in relation to local needs requirements. The fact is that while the population and housing in County Louth will continue to grow by about 20%, the statistics in the Louth county development plan state that housing in rural areas will only be permitted to grow by around 9.4% from 2021 to 2027.
All in government can agree that the current planning system should be changed. In January of this year, I welcomed the publication of the draft planning and development Bill 2022. The Bill, if enacted, will bring greater clarity, consistency and certainty to how planning decisions are made, making the planning system more coherent and user-friendly for the public and planning practitioners. In order to alleviate the housing crisis, we need to ensure that this legislation is enacted as quickly as possible to facilitate planning approvals and developments.
Earlier this year, Irish architects claimed that a new model of housing density could more than double the number of own-door dwellings on a site. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage needs to consult on new guidelines for housing design to meet the needs of more diverse and smaller households. I have previously proposed the use of modular homes in this House in response to the housing crises. I have encouraged the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to consider alternative, innovative housing designs to support greater flexibility, to allow for more compact and sustainable forms of development and to provide greater housing choice. A clear planning policy on building the likes of modular homes and log cabins, for use as permanent homes, could go a long way to addressing the housing crisis.
I have a major issue with vacant houses in Louth and east Meath. I acknowledge that the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, published a vacant homes action plan and launched a new €150 million fund for local authorities to tackle vacancy and dereliction to support the plan. However, this is merely smoke and mirrors. Where is the action and resultant houses as a direct result of this plan's implementation? In this time of crisis, we must ensure that all houses are fully utilised. We need to remarket the advantages of this in order to increase the supply of homes for rent or purchase. I have previously highlighted the work of Louth County Council in bringing derelict vacant properties back into the housing stock. I know from my dealings with the council that the only thing holding it back is the lack of funding from the Government. In the aftermath of the lifting of the eviction ban, it was thrown about that resources and funding are not an obstacle to the urgent efforts required to combat housing supply. Yet, on the ground, we all hear differently. Why are there any vacant homes at all? We need to do more within the measure to ensure that all vacant houses are utilised.
The Department's role regarding homelessness involves the provision of a national framework of policy, legislation and funding to underpin the statutory role of housing authorities in addressing homelessness at local level. The targeting of vacant and derelict buildings would increase the supply of social and affordable homes. The expansion of the tenant in situ scheme and other initiatives for both social and affordable cost-rental housing would increase the supply of social and affordable homes. The housing crisis requires a multifaceted, solutions-driven policy approach that recognises the needs of renters, first-time buyers, the homeless, and landlords. Despite some progress being made on housing supply, we should be open to new thinking and new initiatives that will help address the current chronic housing shortage.
I thank the Deputy. The next slot is the Rural Independent Group. Deputy Richard O'Donoghue is the last man standing. He has eight minutes.
I think they missed their slot but we will allow it anyway.
Deputy Thomas Pringle is there as well.
The Acting Chair is a very fair air traffic controller. They missed their landing slot but we will allow them to land.
That is what is written here. Deputies Thomas Pringle, Catherine Connolly and Joan Collins are in the next slots.
I thank the Acting Chair. I want to talk to the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, about affordable homes and rentals for people in Limerick, as a fellow Limerick man himself. I was at the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage a while ago with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien. I am going to ask the Minister of State the same question I asked him. Thirty-eight years ago, a sewerage system was promised for Askeaton. It was before the Minister of State's time. It has been promised since then on numerous occasions. Two years ago, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, was in Limerick, and he did a small video clip with Councillor Kevin Sheehan. They announced it again but it still has not happened.
Oola, Hospital and Dromcolliher are waiting for their sewerage systems.
Where is the money for the infrastructure to allow us to house people in County Limerick? That would support Limerick city.
The Minister and I were both at an IBEC meeting. The whole focus of that meeting, which met in analogue the other day, was the affordability of houses for people who IBEC wants to work for industries in Limerick. Eli Lilly was looking for housing in Limerick. We have houses coming on stream in Patrickswell but there are no affordable houses for the people outside Patrickswell. The Land Development Agency, LDA, has promised investment for infrastructure in places that are within 15 minutes of the city. There will be investment for housing and all other developments, going forward. That will cover Patrickswell, Adare, Croom and Ballyneety. The LDA strategy does not cover anywhere else in County Limerick. I want to build houses for people in County Limerick. By building houses, we build communities.
Ministers and the Taoiseach were in Foynes the other day. That town has a location for the upgrading of its sewerage system but the development has not started yet. We were at the Foynes Flying Boat and Maritime Museum and I welcome the investment in that facility. I welcomed the Taoiseach when he was there. We then went to the running track in Newcastle West and I welcome the investment there as well. The Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Humphreys, went from there to Broadford, where the hall has been done up. I welcome that investment too. The problem is how we can get people, including our children and grandchildren, back living in those areas so we can fill those halls and have people to run on the running tracks and use the GAA complexes. How can we do that without basic infrastructure? There have been 39 years of promises from Governments to deliver for County Limerick. Promises were made 30 years, 25 years and two years ago. Infrastructure still has not been delivered for County Limerick. That infrastructure would feed into the industry we have in Limerick. We have fantastic industries coming to Limerick and in Limerick. Some 83% of the workforce on the floor in the manufacturing industry is at a level that requires affordable housing to allow people to work. How can we do it without infrastructure? We are not going to be able to do it through the LDA because it will not go further than 15 minutes outside Limerick city. We cannot do it. We need investment.
The Minister of State is in government. His senior Minister is Deputy Darragh O'Brien, who has been to Limerick on numerous occasions. We drove around where new houses were announced for delivery in Limerick. He could not answer one question. For every house announced for Limerick last year, I asked the Minister to ask the contractors what is left in the capacity of the sewerage system. Every contractor on every site where houses were being opened said that the sewerage system was at maximum capacity. What do we tell the people of Oola when they cannot get planning permission on their own sites? People in Oola who want to build their own houses are being told by the local authority that there is no room in the sewerage system because it is at maximum capacity. In Dromcolliher, sewerage is seeping into the River Deel. In Askeaton, raw sewage is going into the waterways at the Shannon Estuary. It has been highlighted in videos. That shows that the biggest polluter in this country is our local authorities. They have come to the Government to ask it to fix the problem. The Government has stated it is introducing houses here, there and everywhere, but it cannot introduce houses without basic infrastructure.
Limerick has been starved of infrastructure, as I highlighted already, for up to 40 years. Empty promises have been made by Governments. In the years that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been in power, they have never delivered on the infrastructure for which we have asked. It is on the record of the Dáil and councils that we have asked for support and they have not delivered. However, they can spend millions upon millions on things that never get off the ground while not supporting the person who wants to go to work. They cannot support the industries that want people to work in them. If we do the basics and provide infrastructure, as I keep saying, we will build our towns and villages. That will, in turn, build our schools and communities. It will also build a business model to allow us to put in transport infrastructure. However, we cannot make anything happen until we have the basics. We cannot build a transport infrastructure because we do not have enough people. We only have the basics. We cannot open new businesses. Anyone who would approach a bank for a loan to open a business will be asked for five-year growth projections. The bank will ask by how much the population will grow in the area that person wants to open a business. That person will have to say there are no such projections and the business will not be able to grow because there is no infrastructure to allow people to come to the area to support the business. There are no people to come to the area to support the schools. Why are we amalgamating so many sports clubs? The statistics are there. Three or four parishes are coming together to create a sports team. Why? It is because we have no more people to bring home because we have no infrastructure.
We must also consider the cost of living and the cost of building. When you go to build your own house in this country, over 20% of your mortgage is payable in VAT, a tax from Government. People pay tax when they work and when they go to work but they must also pay tax on a mortgage. I want to bring people home to Limerick so they can work locally and can get to work via an infrastructure we can build. I need infrastructure. I need the Minister of State to fight with me to ensure we get the infrastructure that Limerick needs.
I welcome the opportunity to speak on the affordable housing motion put forward by Deputy Cian O'Callaghan. It is an important issue to keep on raising. It is important to hold the Government and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to account for the crisis we are in now and have been facing for the past ten or 12 years. It has been clear for a long time that the housing crisis is out of the Government's control. Every report we get sees homelessness hit record after record. Rents and mortgages continue to skyrocket. Every day, people call my office looking for help because Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Labour Party and the Green Party spent decades selling off public housing stock without building any more.
This Government has pushed the cost of housing out of the reach of ordinary people because for decades, the parties in this Government and the Labour Party implemented neoliberal policies designed to allow big developers, banks and speculators to make billions in profits at the expense of people's ability to afford a home. Those policies have failed ordinary people. This Government created this housing crisis and all it has done is to allow the rich to make obscene profits from people's desperation.
We know the figures. Some 12,847 people, including 3,765 children, were homeless in July. That saw another record broken and what a terrible record to break. A number of Deputies have raised instances and individual cases and it is important to put forward the human cost and reality behind these numbers. I was contacted last week by a young girl who is homeless. She was offered lodgings in Gardiner Street. She has a one-and-half-year-old daughter and an eight-year-old daughter. There are no cooking facilities in her lodgings. She has been there since May. She is mainly feeding her children nuggets, goujons and that sort of thing. She tries to get up to her granny's every so often to get some nutritious food into her children. This is outrageous. She had an incident in the lodgings last week, which she reported to the management and the homeless section. She is on a waiting list for a homeless hub. Is that not horrendous? Not only do we have housing waiting lists, but we also have waiting lists for homeless hubs. It is scandalous.
I know of another young woman who is sleeping in a car. She works full time in Aer Lingus. She has homeless help but cannot afford to get anywhere.
Her son, who has special needs, moves from friend to friend because she tries to get some sort of security over his head. They were offered a place in a hotel but she was told she would have to find a childminder for her son, as he could not be left alone. In that case, that woman would not be able to afford childminders to come in and mind her son when she is working, so she would have to give up her job to mind her son in a hotel room. This is the reality for people. She is at the end of her tether. She was on the phone to me the other day, crying her eyes out, not knowing where to go or what to do and not seeing any hope at the end of the tunnel. That is the point. The Government's housing policy is not giving any hope to the thousands of people: on waiting lists; in homeless hubs; in homelessness; and sleeping in cars with their children. It is a scandal that this Government has stood over.
The ESRI released a report this week showing that new renters pay 15.2% more than existing renters. That is a clear sign that the Government has no control over the massively inflated rental market. The median income for first-time buyers of new homes is now more than €90,000, and more than €103,000 in Dublin, which is completely unaffordable for ordinary people. Meanwhile, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage had a €1 billion underspend between 2020 and 2022 in its capital budget, and it missed its targets for delivering affordable purchase and cost rental homes by 7% in 2022. This is a disaster of the Government's making.
We have a situation in my constituency, in St. Michael's Estate, where a regeneration scheme was launched by the former Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Eoghan Murphy, in 2019. The scheme involved the cost rental model and the building of public homes. We are still not even at spade stage. It will take another two years because they got rid of the previous company that was assisting in the development of the estate and they are going to contract out to a number of companies to proceed with the project. It has been four years and we will not see any turf being turned for another two or three years. That is another disaster of the Government's making. There are no supports to assist people in this. I will leave it at that because my time is up.
I thank An Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on affordable housing. I thank Deputy Cian O'Callaghan and the Social Democrats for bringing this motion forward. I strongly support this motion and I urge the Minister to consider the calls in the motion, as well as introducing rent controls. Article 43 of the Constitution guarantees the protection of property right. However, this is not an absolute right. The protection is qualified by the words "as best it may" and Article 43 provides that the right "ought... to be regulated by the principles of social justice" and be balanced with "the common good." The Constitution also states that an attack on these rights must be "unjust". This clearly shows that, with political will, the Constitution is built to allow the Government to balance the property rights of one group with the needs of another when it is for the common good.
What exactly is it about housing thousands of people and providing security to our citizens and children that would not be considered to be in the common good? There would be nothing unjust in implementing rent controls in the middle of a severe housing crisis. Recent history has shown that the courts are reluctant to interfere with the Oireachtas. Austerity legislation was left in place by the Judiciary, for example. In the midst of the crash the State impacted on property rights via emergency pay cuts and pension levies. None were considered to be unconstitutional. Time and again this Government has declared itself to be acting on legal advice when it repeatedly places the rights and profits of landlords ahead of the needs of the general population. It is using a narrow reading of "property rights" to justify its cowardice in the housing crisis.
The Blake case, which seems to be the sticking point, was based on facts that are different from what we face today. At that stage, the economic climate that the legislation addressed through rental controls had passed and so it was deemed an unjust attack on property rights. Unfortunately, today our housing crisis and cost-of-living crisis are the only two things thriving in this country. A nuanced reading of both the case law and the Constitution would show there is a definite scope to allow for balancing the rights of property and addressing the housing crisis. Refusal to approach the law with a desire to find a solution is nothing short of cowardice. Either that or there is a cynical desire to keep the profits of landlords as a priority over houses and roofs over heads, and that, it seems to me, is the reason.
The outworking of the Government's lack of provision is the increasing homelessness across the country. Homelessness in the north west is increasing significantly as well, as the Minister of State knows. In 2018, in the north west, which includes Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim, there were 371 people homeless. That had grown to 539 people by 2022, which represents 239 households. That, proportionately, is as high as it is anywhere else in the country, and that is a sad reflection of what this Government has achieved.
I thank all the Deputies for their contributions. We appreciate the opportunity to set out the important progress being made by the Government in terms of providing affordable housing solutions to those on modest incomes who are above the income thresholds for social housing. We are all aware of the scale of the housing task we face and of the profound impact that the consequences of housing supply challenges and affordability have on the daily lives of so many individuals and families. We understand the imperative of ensuring that people have safe, secure and affordable housing. We understand the pressure that housing constraints are placing on our collective social and economic progress at community and national level. People rightly look to the Government to solve those problems.
As the contributions here this evening have shown, there are many complex, multifaceted and interwoven challenges at play here, which the Government is addressing and seeking to resolve as quickly and definitively as possible. This must be approached in a carefully planned, well-resourced, timely, proactive, responsive and sustainable way, so that we rebuild and renew our housing delivery system to ensure it is capable of addressing our current and emerging housing needs sustainably over time. This is precisely what the Government is undertaking in Housing for All, as clearly set out by the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, earlier. As Members know, Housing For All is a comprehensive, coherent and well-funded suite of measures to address the housing challenges we face, not least the housing supply, ownership, rental, vacancy and homelessness challenges mentioned tonight, all of which are acknowledged by the Government and being tackled in our all-of-government plan. Boosting housing supply, through public and private sector development, is critical to the plan and needed to yield housing affordability and boost homeownership.
Last year, almost 30,000 new homes were added to our national housing stock, up 45.2% from 2021, a significant gear change in a single year. Home completions during the first seven months of 2023 are continuing to perform at the highest level on record since 2011, when the Central Statistics Office, CSO, began its current data series. New home commencements likewise continue to outperform expectations, with 18,500 commencements between January and July, up 12% on the same period last year. A record €4.5 billion in State housing investment in 2023 will ensure this supply momentum can be maintained and exceeded, with 9,100 direct-build social homes and 5,500 affordable homes to be delivered. None of this is happening by accident. It is happening on the back of the measures and initiatives that the Government has put in place under the Housing for All plan, which is delivering actual homes for people to purchase and rent in significant numbers.
Affordability and ownership concerns are at the heart of this debate. All of us here want to see an acceleration of the delivery of affordable homes and put homeownership trends on an upward trajectory. It is easy to forget that many of the affordable housing delivery measures now in place simply did not exist until we passed the Affordable Housing Act 2021. From a standing start, almost 1,800 affordable homes were delivered last year. We know that delivery must be expanded and accelerated and we are building the capacity to do that across our delivery partners: local authorities, first homes, approved housing bodies and the Land Development Agency. We will continue to build on this momentum as delivery scales up further in 2023 and beyond.
First-time buyer numbers are growing. CSO data shows that some 17,220 homes, including about 5,280 new homes, were purchased by first-time buyers in the year to June 2023, an 8% increase on the previous year. First-time buyers thus represent one third of all homes purchased by households in the period.
The Government will continue to grow and expand the potential for first-time buyers to secure a home they own through the ongoing help-to-buy, first home and local authority affordable purchase schemes, together with the recently expanded local authority home loan scheme. I am particularly pleased that the expansion of the first home scheme to include self-build product was announced this week. This expansion will help the many people around the country who decide to build their first home, rather than purchase a new build. Applications for self-build customers are now open online.
In the rental market clearly the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Residential Tenancies Board and the Housing Agency each play important distinct and complementary roles and monitoring the operation of the market in line with the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004 to 2022.
For its part the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is currently finalising a comprehensive review of the private rental sector. It is considering the significant regulatory changes, including rent controls, over the past several years and will report on how our housing system can be enhanced to provide an efficient, affordable, viable, safe and secure framework for both landlords and tenants. The review includes consideration of submissions made as part of the consultation process that ran over the summer, as well as targeted engagement through a stakeholder engagement forum on the review held in July.
At present, 77% of tenancies are covered by the rent cap. The operation of rent pressure zones remains in place until the end of 2024. Outside of rent pressure zones, a landlord may only increase rents every second year, providing rent certainty to tenants for 24 months. This is allied to a general prohibition under the Residential Tenancies Acts that any rent set cannot exceed market rent. It is highly likely that a blanket ban on rent increases for a significant duration would be subject to legal challenge and would almost certainly deter continued investment in the rental accommodation market.
With regard to continuing calls for the restoration of the winter eviction ban, the Government has been categorical in its considered view that any continued reliance on such measures would be detrimental to medium- and long-term supply of private rental accommodation. This position has not changed. The alternative, and correct course of action, has been to focus on the additional measures announced last March to increase the supply of homes in three ways, namely, by scrapping development levies for a time-limited period providing a saving up to the value of €12,650 on average per home thus creating an added incentive to build; by substantially increasing the grants available for renovation of vacant and derelict properties and extending these to rental properties as well as owner-occupied properties; and by investing up to €750 million in the delivery of over 4,000 cost-rental homes under the new secure tenancy affordable rental investment scheme, applications for which have already been made and are being assessed.
These supported cost-rental homes will offer eligible affordable housing applicants secure tenancies in high-demand urban areas at a rent at least 25% below market rents. Taken together, these measures accelerate supply, particularly the supply of affordable rental properties, while addressing vacancy and encouraging more efficient use of existing building stock for housing purposes.
Unprecedented challenges have impacted spending plans on housing in recent years including the war in Europe and the lasting effects of the global pandemic. However, last year saw the highest capital spend ever for the Vote of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, an overall increase of 28% in 2022 versus 2021. Over 93% of the 2022 capital provision, including capital carryover, was spent. This year continues to see further record investment in housing, with total Exchequer funding of €4 billion being made available to deliver housing programmes. 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.
While the original motion focuses on a range of challenges on matters, which are, of course, a shared concern of the Government, the job of Government is to address and ultimately resolve these challenges. The second annual review of Housing for All actions is currently under way and an updated action plan will be published following the budget in October to renew our focus and sustain momentum on implementation and delivery.
There has been clear progress and we have an extremely solid foundation upon which to build for the future. The reforms we have introduced have taken time because they are so comprehensive and far reaching. This is not a short-term and unambitious approach, but a solution to a problem that has festered for years. The Government’s plan is comprehensive and detailed. We will continue to listen to feedback and seek ways to improve. However, one thing that will never change is the core message of the plan and the driving aim of the Government as a whole to provide well-built, affordable housing for all.
I thank the Minister of State, who was spot on time.
Deputy Gannon is sharing time with Deputy Cian O'Callaghan.
I thank the Minister of State for his contribution. Another thing that seems to not change is the same old, same old politics which is failing generations of families in the country. I thank Deputy Cian O'Callaghan for his work on this motion. This is the first opportunity the Social Democrats have had in this term to keep the Government's feet to the fire for the housing catastrophe in this country. As has been proven, I do not expect the Government to turn around and accept that some of these motions would make the situation better. Both recent and long-gone history have shown that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are fond of ignoring progressive policies and solutions to further what seems to be their own agenda.
It is an agenda and a belief in who gets to benefit from property and who gets to suffer from it in this country. It is an agenda which serves the country's highest earners, its oldest money and the culture of corporate landlords and billionaire multinational companies which have been coaxed here during Fine Gael's and Fianna Fáil's disastrous terms in power. Our party, the Social Democrats, along with the public have come to learn that there is no intention to serve the majority of people in this country who are feeling the full weight of this catastrophe. These include the 520,000 adults trapped in their childhood bedrooms. We can only imagine the impact it is having on people in their late 20s and 30s who go home each night to a bedroom where they spent their childhood years. It is an indignity that we need to get in front of. It is unbecoming of a republic. They include the graduates who cannot sustain a life here. They include the college students who only a few weeks ago were given their offers of college courses and got really excited but then the sudden deflation sets in of where in God's name they might get to find accommodation, or where they can find accommodation, how they might pay for it.
Many families are going without necessities to feed their children, those gasping for air below the poverty line. They have come to learn by the Government's actions that this catastrophe will not be addressed under its care. In the case of housing, its actions have demonstrated this by allowing the cost of a home to increase by more than 25% since it came into office. It has sat idly by while the rate of homeownership has declined to a 30-year low. It has demonstrated this to us by permitting rents to double in just over a decade, ushering in a generation-defining housing catastrophe that is ravaging every echelon of Irish society and is becoming absolutely devastating to the human condition.
The Government must think the citizens are stupid. What must it think of the Irish public? The public are starting to see through it and its days are gone. When we bring forward these motions, we do so in the full knowledge that the Government probably will not change its position but this will be what the Social Democrats in government will do. This motion lays out what housing policy will look like. We listen to the people impacted by the Government's decisions and they are telling us that the rot in the housing market it has allowed to fester has ruined their prospects of a future in the places they call home.
My constituency of Dublin Central has a history of communities being displaced. Many families and friendships were torn apart in the 1960s and 1970s by bad planning decisions which left residents in places like the docklands indiscriminately scattered in suburbs that were not designed for communities at that point. In modern times the Government is demonstrating this today because it is allowing those same families who live in communities such as those in my constituency to be displaced because they have absolutely no prospect of being able to afford a home in the places where they grew up.
Someone who has grown up in Dublin city would be lucky to snag a lease on a bedsit for under €2,000 a month and that is if they are lucky enough to be chosen as a tenant with landlords now demanding three months of bank statements to even be considered. Landlords are demanding bank statements from people to be considered to live in the places where they have grown up.
The people of Dublin are being asked to beg for permission to live in the places they call home. There is no greater injustice than that. It is degrading. Those communities will lose their sense of place, identity and heritage unless radical policy change is adopted with urgency. Zero affordable purchase homes were delivered in 2020 and 2021. A meagre 323 units were delivered in 2022. I do not accept the Government's take on this motion, headed by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in cahoots with the Green Party. The winds of change are blowing and this will be enacted with or, more likely, without them.
I thank all Deputies who have contributed to this important discussion. I want to respond to something the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, said when he was articulating Government policy. He said the Government's position is that a reinstatement of the winter eviction ban would not work because it would deter investment in the rental sector and supply. We are not looking for reinstatement of the winter eviction ban. We are looking for the situation that applies in most European countries, where renters who pay their rent cannot be evicted from their home. That is the norm.
Does the Government really believe that there is some sort of Irish exceptionalism, where other European countries are able to have rental sectors where renters who pay their rent cannot be evicted from their home, but something about Ireland means that will not work here? What is it about Ireland that means it will not work? Why are the conditions of investment in Ireland so different from those of any other European country? How is it that the countries in Europe with the largest rental sectors, much bigger than the sector in Ireland, including Switzerland and Germany, have investment in their rental sectors, yet have much better protections for renters? How is it that in Switzerland people who pay their rent cannot be evicted from their homes? Is the Government saying that investors in Ireland will not invest in a humane rental system like they do in other European countries? Is that the position of the Government? Why is it saying that about investment in Ireland? Why does investment in the housing and rental system in Ireland have to be inhumane and lead to record levels of homelessness?
Has the Government really thought through the position it is articulating? It makes no sense. All around Europe, there is investment in housing and the rental sector. There are larger rental sectors, yet renters who pay their rent are not evicted from their homes. Why is it so hard for the Irish Government and Ministers to understand that? If they did understand that, it would make a massive difference in people's lives.
The Government has come in and congratulated itself on its record on housing. More than 500,000 people in their 20s, 30s and into their 40s are living in their childhood bedrooms and there are record levels of homelessness, yet the Government seeks to congratulate itself on its housing record. Does the Government see the humans behind these figures? I am not accusing it of being heartless or completely indifferent. I am asking if it actually sees the humans behind these figures because I do not think it does. If it did, it would do the logical thing of bringing in normal protections for renters, which are in place in most other European countries.
One of the most important points made in this discussion was by my colleague, Deputy Catherine Murphy, when she said that this evening we have seen the Government, as we have seen the Taoiseach do as well, defend record homeless numbers and say it is okay because many people who are homeless are only homeless for less than 12 months and not everyone who is homeless remains homeless for years. It is disturbing that people are in homelessness for years. To dismiss homelessness, including homelessness among children, as being for only three, six or nine months in some circumstances, and to say that it therefore does not really seem to matter without realising the deep damage and trauma that being homeless for any period of time can cause people, especially children, really misses the impact of homelessness. I ask the Minister of State and Taoiseach to reflect on that and on this normalisation process, whereby they say homelessness is okay because it is only for a matter of months for some people.
At the last election, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage promised 10,000 affordable homes a year. That is 50,000 affordable homes from this Government. It has delivered 323. The Minister will not even tell us what the numbers are for this year because the Government is clearly not meeting the targets. Some 323 out of 50,000 promised is the record of this Government on affordable homes.
Amendment put.
In accordance with Standing Order 80(2), the division is postponed until the weekly division time on Wednesday, 27 September 2023.
