Housing Situation: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members]
The following motion was moved by Deputy Eoin Ó Broin on Tuesday, 21 May 2024:
That Dáil Éireann:
notes that:
- the most recent Central Statistics Office report stated that in the past year house prices have continued to skyrocket, rising by more than 7 per cent Statewide;
- across the State, first-time buyers now face an average price of €400,000 to buy a new-build home;
- the rate of home ownership has fallen to its lowest level in 50 years under this Government, as house prices and rents continue surging out of control;
- the number of new homes coming onto the market for people to buy and own fell last year and has flatlined under this Government;
- investment companies and vulture funds are hoovering up properties to rent out at extortionate prices which is making the situation worse; and
- the Tánaiste made a personal promise and a commitment to the electorate that if they got into Government he would deliver 50,000 affordable houses at prices that would be less than €250,000;
further notes:
- warnings from trade unions that the housing and affordability crisis is threatening our public services, with teachers, nurses and Gardaí unable to find affordable accommodation in cities, towns and villages across the State; and
- similar warnings from employer representative groups that the housing crisis is undermining our economy and that many employers are finding it increasingly difficult to attract and retain staff due to a lack of affordable housing;
condemns this Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Green Party Government for delivering zero affordable homes to rent or buy in 2020 and 2021 and missing their inadequate affordable housing targets in 2022 and 2023;
agrees that people need a Government that will deliver homes that people can afford, and that will take on the vulture funds, the big landlords and the vested interests that are making the housing crisis worse; and
calls for:
- a radical reset of Government housing policy; and
- at least a doubling of output in the number of affordable homes to buy and rent.
Debate resumed on amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:
"notes:
- that Housing for All - a New Housing Plan for Ireland, now in its third year of implementation, sets out a comprehensive suite of actions aimed at addressing affordability in the housing sector and that supply, which is critical to achieving this, has increased significantly since its publication in September 2021;
- that almost 33,000 new homes were built in 2023 alone, more than 109,000 new homes have been built between 2020 and the end of Q1 2024;
- that in the first quarter of 2024 11,956 new homes commenced, a 63 per cent increase on the same period in 2023 and the highest number of quarter 1 commencements since the data series began in 2015;
- with more than 18,000 new homes commenced in April, some 53,000 homes have started on site in the year to the end of April, with approximately 350 units starting on site every working day so far this year;
- a likelihood that the substantial uplift in delivery in 2022 and 2023 will be sustained this year and that a there is a robust new home supply pipeline for 2025 and 2026, underpinned by rebounding planning permissions in 2023 and an extraordinary surge in commencements between January and April this year on the back of the Government's development levy waiver; and
- that the Government is providing €5.1 billion capital investment in 2024, the highest level of funding for housing in the history of the State, to accelerate the delivery of new homes and increase the supply necessary to reduce homelessness and moderate house and rental prices;
further notes:
- that the number of market purchases of new homes by households has increased year-on-year, from 38,000 in 2020 to more than 53,000 in 2023, with the share of purchases also increasing from 76 per cent to 80 per cent in that period;
- that the number of homes purchased by first-time buyers has increased from 12,644 or 25 per cent of all market purchases in 2020, to 17,435 or 28 per cent in 2023;
- at the same time, the increase in the share of market purchases by households, and in particular first-time buyers, is mirrored by a decrease in the share of such purchases by non-households from 24 per cent to 20 per cent over that timeframe;
- strong first-time buyer activity reflected in mortgage approval and mortgage drawdown activity in 2023 and 2024 to date, with recent Banking and Payment Federation of Ireland data suggesting there were more than 30,400 first-time buyer approvals in 2023, this is an increase of 9 per cent on the previous year;
- more than 6,400 mortgage applications approved for first-time buyers in Q1 2024, with the number of approvals in the 12 months to end-March 2024 showing an 8 per cent increase on the previous year;
- record growth in mortgage drawdowns by first-time buyers in 2023, with some 25,600 mortgages drawdown in the period, the highest annual level since 2007, this represented some 500 first time buyer drawdowns every week in 2023;
- that mortgage drawdowns to year end-March 2024 exceeded 25,000, remaining broadly on a par with drawdowns by first-time buyers in the previous 12-month period;
- the introduction of measures in 2021 to disincentivise the inappropriate bulk purchasing of new homes by investment funds, including a higher 10 per cent stamp rate for certain bulk purchases of residential properties and planning guidelines to restrict the bulk purchase of houses for planning applications lodged following their introduction in May 2021; and
- that between May 2021 and December 2023 planning permissions for some 40,827 new homes had the new 'owner-occupier' guarantee attached, restricting bulk buying by, or multiple sales to, a single purchaser;
recognises that an increased delivery of affordable homes is at the heart of Housing for All - a New Housing Plan for Ireland and welcomes that:
- over 4,000 affordable housing supports were delivered in 2023 via Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs), local authorities, the Land Development Agency (LDA), through the First Home Scheme, the Cost Rental Tenant-in-Situ Scheme and the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant;
- this represents an increase of 128 per cent on 2022 activity, which saw the first affordable homes delivered in a generation;
- over 1,600 cost rental homes have already been delivered by AHBs, local authorities and the LDA;
- funding is approved to support the delivery of more than 4,000 affordable homes (affordable purchase and cost rental) by 21 local authorities with the support of over €332 million in grant assistance from the Affordable Housing Fund;
- over 4,000 approvals have been issued under the First Home Scheme since launch, assisting first time buyers to purchase a new home in the private market more affordably; and
- over 7,800 Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant applications have been made, with over 4,667 already approved and over 320 grants issued to date; and based on current grant approvals and timelines to complete approved works, the set target of 4,000 by 2025 will be achieved in 2025;
condemns:
- Sinn Féin's opposition to home ownership schemes that have helped over 150,000 people into their first homes to date namely: Help to Buy scheme, First Home Scheme and the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant; and
- the continued failure by Sinn Féin to publish a detailed, fully costed alternative housing plan; and
agrees that the continued implementation of Housing for All - a New Housing Plan for Ireland represents the most appropriate response to deal with the housing challenges which Ireland is now facing."
- (Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Alan Dillon)
I thank Deputy Ó Broin for his momentous work on forming Sinn Féin's housing policy and bringing the motion to the Dáil. I have to say the Government's response to the breaking news this morning on part of the Housing Commission's report is bewildering. All Opposition parties have been saying for years that there is a national emergency housing crisis in this country. Sinn Féin has called for a national emergency to be declared on the status of Ireland's housing demand and for the right to housing to be enshrined in the Constitution yet the Government has always blocked, barracked and berated the Opposition for tabling such motions. No matter what the Government says, the simple facts are that any young couple, single parent or single person living in our country today on the minimum wage or the average industrial wage cannot rent or buy a home at current housing market prices. In fact, according to the Ombudsman for Children more than 30,000 children live in insecurity, whether through homelessness, hidden homelessness or in other State institutions.
Parents are worried sick they are unable to provide security for their own future well-being and, what is worse, for their children who are growing up in a box room in their grandparent's home or in overcrowded and overpriced rental accommodation. Families are struggling to pay exorbitant rents, very often in substandard accommodation. The latest Daft.ie report shows rents in my constituency of Wexford have risen by 7.5% year on year, to an average of €1,371, with an average home costing €350,000. How in anyone's world can someone afford to rear a family and save for a deposit when they pay more than one third of their hard-earned cash to landlords?
It is unbelievable to hear the statements from the Government that a step change is needed after 13 years. They have the audacity to quote figures from 2011 to state how much better they are now. It is 13 years later and the targets are still very low. The commission's report estimates the housing deficit ranges from 212,000 to 256,000 homes on the 2022 census figures. The problem is that it has taken 13 years for the Government to realise that a step change is needed to provide homes and a roof over citizens' heads. The only problem is the suggested step change is a mere baby step in what has become a race to save the hopes of an entire generation to ever own or rent a family home. The only way a real step change will occur is through a change in government in the local and general elections.
I thank my colleague Deputy Ó Broin for bringing the motion to the House. To state the Government's housing policies are a disaster is a big understatement. There are record house prices throughout the State, home ownership is at its lowest rate in 50 years and generations are being denied any hope of ever having a home of their own. Instead, the red carpet is rolled out again and again for vultures to waltz in and buying up properties wholesale, charging eye-watering rents and not even paying tax on their rental income.
Remember Belcamp Manor? Occu is now inviting applicants for its waiting list to rent these properties. Imagine a waiting list to rent properties at the eye-watering cost of €3,175 per month. Let this sink in. This is for family homes. This is absolutely disgraceful. Before coming to the Chamber I looked at daft.ie and researched new homes in my county of Kildare. There are a few estates with the lowest starting price of €360,000. I sat down and did my sums. An ordinary working couple would have to be earning a minimum of €90,000 between them to even come within sniffing distance of a mortgage for this amount, not to mention they are paying sky-high rents into the bargain.
As for social housing, the more than 6,000 households on Kildare's housing list must endure a wait of a minimum of at least eight years to be housed, while struggling to find suitable affordable rental accommodation in a county with approximately 71 properties available to rent today. There are 6,000 people on that list and we have 71 properties. Do the maths. Nobody will get housed.
Where are the 50,000 affordable houses promised by the Tánaiste, Deputy Micheál Martin, when he was going into government? They have not come to Kildare and I have not seen them anywhere else. What are our nurses, doctors, gardaí and teachers going to do when they cannot find somewhere to live so they can go to work? Bear in mind we have a lack of gardaí in Kildare. They have no houses to live in and they travel for miles to get there. What will the Government do about this? Does it expect them to come out with tents from O'Connell Street?
I am my party's spokesperson for older people. Older people come to my office telling me they cannot find anywhere to rent or they are struggling with a mortgage. Imagine older people are coming to us because they are struggling with a mortgage. It was never heard tell of before. The Government needs to put its rhetoric into action and change its housing policies to ones that provide urgently needed housing and double the number of affordable homes to buy and rent. We need a Government that can and will do what is necessary to fix the housing disaster and it is a disaster. We need a Government that will radically reset housing policy and tackle the stranglehold of vulture funds and other vested interests on the housing and rental markets. We need Sinn Féin in government and the Government needs to go.
The housing crisis is a manufactured crisis caused by bad housing policies by successive Governments and the dependence on private developers to increase the housing stock. It has continued to spiral out of control under this Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green Party coalition. Young couples are finding it impossible to get on the property ladder even when both have good incomes. To add insult to injury, they are being virtually gazumped by investment funds with ready access to resources whereby they can afford to buy up large numbers of apartments as well as houses in estates.
They have also availed of significant grants and tax exemptions to their advantage over time. These investment funds are driving up property prices and rents. Increasing house prices along with high rents are proving to be a major roadblock for families and those wanting to get on the property ladder. Sinn Féin will stop vulture funds from buying up housing stocks that should otherwise go to families. There is also a serious lack of social and affordable housing stock. The answer to this lack of social and affordable housing is that the Government should give local authorities the lead in building such housing. In fact, we need a State company dedicated solely to the building of these houses that would not be influenced by the private sector. Lands owned by local authorities such as those identified in my constituency around Finglas, Ballymun and Santry can be utilised for affordable building projects. The Government can replicate the success of housing bodies such as Ó Cualann housing, which has been building and delivering affordable housing for years.
The number of people and families I see regularly in my constituency office who are about to be made homeless is alarming. With little or no HAP properties available, an increasing number of landlords leaving the rental sector, investment funds asking for exorbitant rents and few social and affordable houses being build, we are facing a perfect storm. This will only result in further record homeless figures and the prospect of a family owning their own home becoming ever more remote and unattainable. There are 138,000 people on the housing waiting list. I do not understand where the Minister is coming from on this. There are 14,000 homeless and 4,000 of them are children. Families are living on the edge when it comes to homelessness. We have seen that people are even topping up the HAP to stay in a HAP property. There is money being handed out behind the scenes, which should not be happening but is. People are really worn down to the bone when it comes to paying rents. Many people are emigrating and they say they are leaving because of the price of housing, not because they do not have good jobs, families and commitments here. It is the price of housing and cost of living. The price of housing is a major stumbling block.
I was watching the Minister's contribution in my office just before I came down. I heard him say that Housing for All is working. It is not. Complex as the housing situation is, in many ways it is quite simple to see why it is not working. There are a couple of key metrics. Rents are going up; house prices are going up; and, key to all, homelessness is going up. Unless those trends are being reversed and the metrics are going the other way, the plan is not working, whether it is Housing for All, a plan by an alternative Government or any other alternative. This plan is not working.
I thank Sinn Féin for bringing the motion tonight. It is an important motion. As it points out, the rate of home ownership has fallen to its lowest level in 50 years under the Government as house prices and rents continue to surge out of control. We heard the Taoiseach give a performance during Leaders' Questions earlier. He tried his best to state that Housing for All is working in that houses are being built, and stated that there are affordable homes coming on-stream. To use that description is absolutely false. Out canvassing at the weekend, I spoke to a young woman who is a qualified accountant earning a really good wage. By her own admission she is doing really well and has been saving for four years. She is a single applicant and she is still miles away from getting a home. She is doing everything right, saving well. She does not want to live on Shrewsbury Road, she just wants a decent home in Swords or somewhere in the surrounding area, the area where she grew up. She cannot afford that. This is why Housing for All is failing.
Two years ago, Deputy Bacik, the leader of my party, stated that we needed to build 50,000 homes and complete 50,000 retrofits each year for ten years. We in the Labour Party were criticised and mocked by Government for our figures. We were told that they were too high and had been plucked out of the air. They were not; they were taken from ESRI reports. Now we have a Minister, Tánaiste and Taoiseach who, like students who forgot to do their homework, are copying the work of those of the other side of the Chamber. They are copying our work and saying the targets needs to be raised, as if it is news to us on this side of the House. It is not news to the Labour Party.
We do not have to go too far to find out why Housing for All is failing. Ask anyone under the age of 35. Ask anyone under that age in this building. Ask any of our staff members under 35 or anyone who serves this House and its Members. Like any other workplace, people with decent enough jobs on decent enough wages are miles away from owning homes. They are angry; they feel they are doing everything right and are being let down. We in opposition and in the Labour Party have tangible ideas of how to tackle these issues. We want to see a State housing construction company established through the Land Development Agency to increase the delivery of public homes to over 20,000 a year, social homes to 12,000 a year, and 10,000 truly affordable homes to either rent or buy.
The Government does not even know the true scale of the number of empty homes nationwide. While 57,206 properties are vacant according to the local property tax returns, census estimates are much higher, closer to 166,750 vacant homes, excluding the 66,000 seasonal holiday homes. We are not saying these are low-hanging fruit but they do constitute head-room within the housing system that is not being used to tackle the housing crisis. The Labour Party would take radical action to tackle vacancy and dereliction by introducing a minimum vacant home tax of €2,000 a year and increased funding for councils to compulsorily purchase vacant and derelict properties. The CPO process, as we know, is not only underfunded but takes an interminable time from start to finish. That is, if a council can get to the finish line. A real problem we have in housing is not just that supply is below par, but also that the Government does not really grasp the public view on this crisis. It is an unbelievable disconnect to come in from the doors or one of our weekly advice clinics to the floor of the Dáil and to hear the kind of spiel that was given by the Taoiseach at Leaders' Questions earlier or by the Minister for housing this afternoon.
Another prominent example of how the Government is leaving people behind is the lack of housing being built that is truly accessible for disabled people. It is hard enough for people to find a home or apartment to rent. A person who has a disability and is looking for housing is facing a crisis within a crisis, as the Irish Wheelchair Association rightly labelled it. Our national building regulations currently only provide for wheelchair visitable homes, not wheelchair livable housing. What does that say to people in this country who are in wheelchairs? This is a matter of equality but also dignity, to be able to live in their own homes, watch TV, go to the kitchen, go to bed and do everything we can take for granted. The regulations regarding the provision and building of houses and homes are not up to standard for people with disabilities.
I want the Government to take responsibility for the rental crisis that we see. The Government trips over itself to help landlords. Earlier this year, the Minister spoke about landlords needing more tax breaks. When it comes to renters, they are being hung out to dry, continuing to pay high rents to clear the mortgages of their landlords and unable to save for a place of their own. Indeed, they are unable to even move from expensive rental properties to more affordable ones because the latter do not exist.
They are trapped by high rents, and the only way out for many is an eviction notice into the abyss. That is the reality which renters have been living with for the past number of years. Cost rental is too expensive for ordinary workers in this country. Locking people into 30-year rental agreements, where there is supposed to be fixity of tenure, at rents over €1,500 and €1,600 monthly, is what cost rental is now. We need to reimagine what cost rental is. We need a below-cost rental model because the cost it takes to build a home now ensures this cost-rental model is too expensive for ordinary people.
The Government lifted the ban on no-fault evictions almost one year ago against all advice. This was done not only against the advice of the Opposition - we understand that the Government will never take our advice - but also against that of many advocates and advocacy groups operating in the housing space. Those groups said that this move would increase homelessness. What has happened since then? We have seen homelessness continue to increase. The Government's housing policy is an abject failure. Any of us who properly commit to trying to help people in our public work in terms of housing see this day in and day out. It is just getting worse.
While I have the floor, other issues related to this housing never get the coverage it does but they are linked to it. I refer to services related to the provision of housing. The provision of water supplies is key to the provision of housing. Getting connections to the mains water supply can delay the delivery of housing. There is still chronic underinvestment in replacing our water infrastructure. While both the Minister and the Minister of State are here, I take the opportunity to raise the disgraceful issue concerning the quality of water in Cork city, especially in Ballyvolane and the north side of the city. Councillor John Maher, who represents Ballyvolane on the northside of Cork city, has raised this issue with Deputy Bacik and me repeatedly. The Minister needs to ensure that Irish Water addresses this issue and comes clean about what is happening. The water there is absolutely filthy. This has been going on for more than a year and a half, since 2022. People have reported orange water coming out of their taps. It is not clear if it is being caused by sediment from old cast iron mains being replaced or what the actual cause might be. It is also not clear when this situation will be addressed. The water there is not drinkable and people's home appliances are being damaged and broken because of this poor water quality. It is also costing families a fortune in bottled water. This is just one example of a crumbling infrastructure that is required if we are to meet our housing targets. This will be even more so the case if they are to be raised. We need to get this right, but we are not getting it right here. We are not getting housing right and the Housing for All policy is failing.
I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this motion and giving us the opportunity to discuss these important issues around housing. There is one question I have asked myself and that I wish to pose here. When the Government states that it thinks its Housing for All plan is working, does it really believe that? Is it that disconnected from what is happening in people's lives or is it just Government messaging or spin at work when it says it believes this policy is working? If the Government does believe this, then it must be utterly disconnected from and unable to see the reality of what is happening right now. It must mean the Government does not see the situation that renters are in, where rents are increasing year in and year out above the legal amount the Government has set down in law but where the legislation is not being enforced and renters are afraid of being evicted into homelessness and, indeed, are being evicted into homelessness. The Government must not see the children growing up without a home if it thinks its Housing for All plan is working. It must not see the great numbers of people in their 20s and 30s still living in their childhood bedrooms and who have done everything they can in terms of education and work, everything previous generations would have done, but still find themselves not being able to make the transition to living a full and independent life and get on with family formation or whatever it might be because of the reality of their housing situation. The Government must not see, although we all certainly meet their parents, the people who have emigrated with the skills we desperately need in our public services and health services. We do not have them because they could not find anywhere affordable to live and have emigrated. If the Government really believes its mantra that the Housing for All policy is working despite record levels of rent, house prices and homelessness, then it must not be able to see people who are struggling in all those housing situations all across the country. Otherwise, the Government is simply misleading us by saying it thinks the housing policy is working. If it were able to see the reality people are living in, it would realise that its plan is not working. How would it be possible to say this plan is working in the context of any of this evidence?
If the Government continues to repeat the same lines and the same spin, there is a real danger it might start believing it and that it will not have a handle on the real situation and its human impact. I just want to give one example of this human impact. We all meet people all the time who are under massive stress stemming from this housing crisis. This takes a great mental toll and an equally great toll on people's relationships, their family relationships and their whole sense of well-being and independence. This situation can have very negative health consequences for people. Some of these can be very serious. When the Government says this plan is working, then, I wonder if it is really aware of the damage being done to people on a human level.
I will give one example of a person who has been struggling with the housing crisis. Paul Cambridge is 23 years old. At the onset of epileptic seizures, Paul lost his job and then his home. He spent two years sleeping in a car parked outside two empty houses on the south side of Cork city. Of course, if the Housing for All policy were working, then there would be enough housing supply to allow people who lose their jobs due to a situation like that experienced by Paul Cambridge to not become homeless. If the Government were doing its job, we would not have homeless people sleeping outside empty houses.
We have put forward several solutions. We said we want a vacancy tax with teeth. We brought this forward but the Government has not done it. Even if we look at the Government's buy and renew scheme, where empty and derelict houses are bought up by local authorities and turned into social homes, we were only at a level last year that was a quarter of what it was in 2018. Let us think of how much worse homelessness has become since 2018. In terms of this buy and renew scheme to turn vacant and derelict homes into social homes, that could be put into use to ensure that people like Paul Cambridge would not be sleeping outside empty homes for two years, this Government's performance is one-quarter of what was achieved in 2018 and then its tells us it is doing a good job.
I wish to raise one thing about the spin the Government is putting on this issue. It has to do with the local authority homeless performance reports. These reports have very good data but I want to take some time to talk about the title used for them. Referring to them as homeless performance reports makes it seem as if they involve some sort of standardised financial reporting or something like that. It is like this is some sort of a business saying how well it has done in its performance. What we are talking about here is normalisation. What should be getting published are local authority homelessness eradication reports and not our performance on how we are doing. Surely this suggests that we are okay with homelessness just increasing month after month.
With that said, there are good and important data and information in the homeless performance reports from the local authorities. The one for the first quarter of 2024 gives important information about how people are becoming homeless. One of the key drivers, and the reports back this up, is people being evicted from the private rental sector in no-fault evictions. The people in these situations have done nothing wrong. They have paid their rent on time every month. If they lived in most other European countries, they would not be homeless.
Renters who pay rent cannot be evicted from their homes. Under this Government, however, with a record level of homelessness, renters who pay their rent are being evicted into homelessness. Of course, this is something the Government could stop if it wanted to. That would reduce the number of people becoming homeless. Then we could have homeless reduction reports being published, as opposed to homeless performance reports. That the Government is not doing this is down to a political choice. No-fault evictions work to stabilise the rental sector and reduce the number of people who become homeless. If the Government was serious about reducing homelessness, that is one measure it could take straight away.
Countries that do not allow no-fault evictions, have big, thriving rental sectors. Their rental sectors are larger than ours, and there is lots of investment available. The sky does not fall in, and those in the rental sectors - landlords, tenants, renters and so forth - continue to go about their business.
I want to address a point about Government spin. When the Government talks about what causes homelessness, one of the lines it uses is that one of the key drivers of homelessness is the breakdown of relationships. It is trying to paint a picture to the effect that it is not responsible and that it is somehow the fault of the person whose relationship has broken down. In other words, that person, who is feeling pressure or stress because they has broken up with their partner, is somehow responsible for the fact that they have become homeless. That is the narrative that the Government is trying to portray when it refers to people becoming homeless as a result of breakdowns in relationships. Not that it should matter what type of relationship breakdown it is, but what the Government does not tell us - the commission's report shows this - is that the key family relationship that breaks down and leads to people becoming homeless is that between the person who becomes homeless and their parents. Why is that relationship breaking down? It is because of the massive stress and pressure when three generations of the same family are living in one house or where entire families are living out of box rooms. There could be ten people using one shared bathroom and one shared toilet. That kind of overcrowding puts people under massive stress and pressure. That is one of the key drivers of homelessness. When it refers to relationships breaking down, the Government does not tell people that. It likes to portray matters in a way that indicates something else is going on and that the people who are suffering from this stress have some sort of responsibility for what is happening to them, when it is the dysfunctional system that is actually responsible. Yet, the Government has the audacity to tell us that Housing for All is working. It is not working.
The Housing Commission has simply confirmed what the dogs in the street know, namely that the Government's housing policy is an absolutely disastrous failure. The catalogue of human misery that this failure is visiting on thousands of individuals, families and children should be well known to the Minister of State if he is knocking on doors. He could not possibly miss it, because house after house is impacted by one type of housing misery or another. Yet, the Government tables amendments to housing motions put before us and trumpets the success of its housing policies. That is an insult to the people in homeless accommodation and to those who have spent a decade or two decades on a housing list. It is an insult to working people who work hard, pay their taxes and have not got the slightest chance of affording the house prices that obtain at present or who are paying 50% or 60% or 70% of their income on the disgustingly obscene rents being charged.
A person will not find anywhere in Dublin to rent for less than €2,000 a month. It will more likely be €2,500 a month and, very often, €3,000. Who could afford this? Somebody is making a great deal of money. Let us not forget that. The people charging those rents are making large amounts of money. Ordinary people are being crucified with those kind of rents and robbed of the chance of saving for a home. In many cases, it is simply so far out of reach that they are living at home with their parents. Some are living at home with their parents and grandparents in outrageous Dickensian conditions that are reminiscent of this city at the beginning of the 20th century and the slum conditions decried by Seán O'Casey which led to the 1913 Lock-out. That is outrageous.
I will give some examples of people I am dealing with at the moment. Nicola, who had already spent six years in homeless accommodation, managed to get a HAP tenancy but is now being evicted along with her three children. Not being sufficiently high up on the housing list, she was told to find an alternative HAP rental. The highest HAP limit, as Members know, is €1,300. If a person is homeless, that might go up to €1,900. She has to find somewhere for €1,900, but no such place exists. What the person in this desperate situation, namely somebody who has already been homeless with her three children, is being told is that she is going to be homeless again, that there is no guarantee she will get own-door accommodation, that she may be sent into the city centre to a hostel because those responsible cannot even give her something in her area near where her children kids go to school.
Then there is Ellen, who has an OT report about her scoliosis. This means that she needs level-access living. She was refused medical priority even though the OT report says she has to have this. She was told to go and find a HAP tenancy that will suit her medical needs. We are now overriding medical professionals when it comes to housing needs and saying that because there are no houses available, these people are going to be told that they do not really have medical needs. Ellen has scoliosis and is living in totally unsuitable conditions.
Anthony has been homeless for 20 months. He has two children, one male and one female. They are all now in the same room together, facing into possibly their third Christmas in homelessness.
What about Amy and her husband, who is a bus driver? They are facing a no-fault eviction. Between them, they have an income of €48,000. This means that they are over the threshold for social housing. It is bad enough if you are eligible for social housing and are told that it will be ten or 15 years before you get a social house and then you have to find a HAP tenancy that does not exist. If you are a few thousand euro over the threshold, however, you do not even get HAP. This couple are absolutely goosed.
People may be told they are eligible for cost rental. However, there is only a tiny amount of cost rental available. This is the situation with Jane, whose income is €42,000. She is above the threshold for social housing but was eligible for cost rental when it came up in her area as a result of the income bracket she is in. Unfortunately, her income is not enough for the rent of the cost rental. She was therefore deemed ineligible on income grounds.
The position with Jimmy is similar. He is single dad with a daughter. His take-home pay is €46,000, which is above the income limit for social housing. He takes home €3,830 a month but that is not enough to pay rent of €3,000 a month. What about the cost rental? In terms of the income band, he should be eligible. However, on income grounds, the rent for the cost rental is too high because it is more than 35% of his income. As a result, he is ineligible.
The misery just goes on. What about V? I will just use the first letter of her first name. She is 65 years old and is forced to share a room with strangers at homeless accommodation. This has severely impacted her medical health.
What about another mother who is 38 and has a 12-year-old daughter, a ten-year-old son and a seven-year-old son with home she sleeps in one bedroom?
The school has written to say the children are withdrawing such is the impact on their mental health. They have loads of letters from the doctors to say their mental health is in bits, but they have been denied medical priority. Parents are told that their kids may be absolutely destroyed by this experience and their own mental health may be destroyed by it, but that is not a priority because there are not enough three-bedroom houses, which is something I have warned the Government about.
Against the Government's trumpeting of its successes, what is actually happening in Dublin? What is happening is that apartment blocks are being built. Those apartment blocks are being bought up, mostly by investors. The development that has just been completed in my area in Blackrock, for example, where we were knocking on doors, has been bought up by investors for build-to-rent properties. Next door, there is a woman who said the development would be ideal for her son who is in his mid-30s and working but the investors have bought it. What are the investors going to do with it? They will either charge rents of €3,500, which no ordinary working person can afford, or maybe they will get some HAP tenants in and the State will pay, if people are lucky. That probably will not happen in reality.
What could we have done about that? The houses have been built. This is what is happening all over the place. We get 10% social housing, and the rest is totally unaffordable or is bought up by investors. There is one answer for what we could do immediately. We could say we do not need unaffordable housing. Instead of investors buying up these properties, vulture funds, investors and so on should just be taken out of the picture and banned from the Irish market. We should tell them they are not buying up the small amount of housing we desperately need in order to extort people with extortionate rents. We should tell them we are getting them out of the market, give them six months to leave the country and have the State step in and make sure every single unit that is delivered is either social and cost rental or affordable purchase. That can be done. We have the money to do it. It would save us money in the long term in terms of HAP if we did that. The more people we house permanently, securely and affordably, the more money we will save in the long run. In any event, we have a huge budget surplus.
We also need to get more people working directly on building social and affordable housing on the basis of what we need, not when private developers feel it could be profitable for them to build. The number of vacant or derelict properties or zoned sites they are sitting on while waiting until it suits in order that they can make enough money is disgraceful, and the Government will not do anything about it. These people sit on tens of thousands of vacant or derelict properties and huge amounts of zoned residential land and drip-feed them into the market as it suits them or, even worse, they leave them empty because they are appreciating assets that they can flip and make money off. That stuff has to be stopped. It is not being stopped because, to be honest, the Government is not interested in these people; it is interested in the speculators and developers.
I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion on housing. It is interesting to note that Sinn Féin is calling for "a radical reset of Government housing policy", which is the exact same call made by the Housing Commission in its report. This independent body, set up by Government to look at housing policy, also called for a "radical strategic reset of housing policy." Its report states that there is an underlying housing deficit in Ireland of 256,000 homes. That is a shocking figure. Blame must be laid at the door of those who have been in power for the last 20 years. There is no getting away from that and no sugarcoating it.
While there are new pressures on the housing market, the deficit in homes for families and individuals is a national disgrace. I understand that some progress is being made. The report, which is not available to read in its entirety - all we have is a report from RTÉ today - states that emergency delivery is needed to meet the deficit. I do not see that being done. There is progress but we will be forever playing catch-up. In fact, we will never catch up. We will just continue to fall further behind.
One of the recommendations in the report is to establish a housing delivery oversight executive to drive co-ordination across legislation, registration and administrative practices. This makes real sense because of the urgency of the situation and the need for all the different systems to work together so that the system delivers the maximum possible number of homes in the shortest possible timeframe. It is like a complicated set of levers. In order to work at maximum efficiency, precision timing and co-ordination, above all else, are vital to deliver the best outcomes.
We also hear, according to this report, that in comparison with our European partners, we have one of the highest levels of public expenditure on housing yet one of the poorest outcomes. That in itself is proof positive that we need such a level of co-ordination. Along with healthcare, housing has to be the highest priority. Emergency action needs to be taken by the Government and it needs to be led by the Taoiseach because nothing else will do at this stage. Even at this late stage, I ask that the Government move swiftly to make the necessary changes and implement the most important recommendations in the Housing Commission's report.
In the few short minutes remaining to me, I will highlight a very important issue with regard to the construction of homes. It relates to where homes are built as well as the fact that not enough are being built. I raised this issue in the Dáil a few weeks ago when I highlighted the regional imbalance in housing completions. According to the Central Statistics Office, CSO, report on new housing completions for 2023, the northern and western region, with 17% of the population, accounted for only 11% of the housing completions. Not only is this Government failing to deliver new homes, but the situation is even worse in the regions. It is no wonder the most recent Residential Tenancies Board report showed skyrocketing increases in rents for counties Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon and Donegal when we do not have supply.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, in my rush, I have come in without glasses. I want to pick up from where I left off earlier. I thank Sinn Féin for this motion. It allows me to go into a little more detail, maybe with less passion than earlier. We had the report of the Housing Commission today and I look forward to reading the whole document. We already referred to the most important point made, namely, its call for a radical reset of housing policy.
I have stood opposite the Minister of State repeatedly begging and appealing to the Government to change tack. When homelessness reaches this level - I read out the figures earlier - there is something radically wrong. When we have a city, Galway, where a task force sat for more than five years and did not make a final report, there is something wrong. The task force was put into being because of continuous pressure from me and other people who were arguing that there was a housing crisis in Galway. I have been a Deputy since 2016. The task force was set up five years ago and there has been no final report. By comparison, Gaeltacht Uíbh Ráthaigh i gContae Chiarraí has a second report from a task force which has published findings and made recommendations.
There was nothing like that in Galway, just another layer of bureaucracy in a task force. I do not mean to cast aspersions on any member of staff but we did not need another layer of bureaucracy. We needed an analysis of the problem.
We have a report from the Housing Commission which we have not read yet, but the Minister has. He has not had it for weeks but for at least ten days. It is barely referred to in the document I have. The action called for by the commission is not even referred to in the speech. The Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, later did the same thing. He was the main Minister of State for this discussion. He pointed out that Housing for All is working. Imagine that. He said Housing for All is working. There are no houses available in Galway under the HAP scheme. Remember that the HAP scheme was brought in in 2014 by Fine Gael and the Labour Party. That was detrimental. It was the death knell as it copper-fastened the making of housing into a product to be bought and sold. It brought in the housing assistance payment and people came off a waiting list. In addition, if they were on RAS after 2011, they came off the waiting list. There were no rights. Everybody was on various schemes with no security of tenure whatsoever. Simon Communities Ireland does its report every quarter, telling us that absolutely no house is available under RAS. The only game in town in Galway city is HAP.
What am I doing as a representative? I am constantly raising the issue here and arguing that one part of the new policy, the radical rethink, must be to use public land for public housing and nothing else. This motion is about affordable housing. I can see why Sinn Féin is forced into it but there is absolutely no sense in talking about affordable housing when we have a system that is utterly reliant on the market for every single Government scheme, including the help-to-buy scheme, the equity scheme and so on.
I mentioned earlier that if hospital consultants are being helped by the help-to-buy scheme, fair play to them, because any scheme should be used by whoever chooses to use it, but would the Minister of State not think something is seriously wrong with the policy? If consultants need help to buy a house in this country, would that not sound an alert? If nearly 14,000 people are homeless on a continuous basis, with the figure getting worse, would that not alert the Government before the Housing Commission ever reported? If there is not one single affordable scheme in Galway city or county after five years of a task force, would that not alert it that something is seriously wrong with this policy and the previous policy, and the HAP scheme that was brought in? Between HAP, RAS and long-term leasing, over €1 billion is spent per year.
Tonight, we have members of the Government here and a Minister unable to take his head out of the sand and say that this is not a case of the Opposition playing games with the Government but the commission telling it that a radical rethink is needed, and many other things besides. He said this is working. It is working for those who are benefiting. It is working for the small number of developers who are holding onto land, as in Galway, or developing schemes to suit themselves at a pace that suits themselves, but that leaves out the element of social housing or affordable housing.
I have appealed to the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, on a personal basis. I have acknowledged his bona fides. Still, this Government continues with a system that is rotten at the core. I say it as strongly as that. There is a reluctance to say that we have utterly failed.
I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this important motion before the Dáil. I remind the Labour Party, the hurlers on the ditch who criticise me for not declaring an interest, that I declare an interest in the whole housing situation because it is a business that I have been involved in for many decades.
I will not be accused of being a critic of Sinn Féin because I am not. I have been great friends with present and past Sinn Féin members. I always like telling it as it is. Standing here tonight, supporting a motion by Sinn Féin, which I am glad to do, while I do not say this in an argumentative way and am not being aggressive about it, if I do not understand something, I will ask the question. I am still not able to get my head around why TDs in Sinn Féin are using their positions to obstruct, object, hold up and stop developments in their own constituencies. How can a Teachta Dála stand in this Chamber, having written an objection against 250 or 350 houses? We have Members of Sinn Féin who have objected to 2,800 houses being built in their own constituency. I am not able to understand that. I will call it out here, in County Kerry and around the country. Why do Sinn Féin Members object to houses being built? You cannot talk out of both sides of your mouth. If you want affordable houses, you have to encourage the building of houses. How any person who is elected, whether to a local authority, Dáil Éireann or the Seanad, can realistically expect to be taken seriously when he or she is objecting to houses being built is something I cannot understand. I have to say that. At the same time, I am supporting Sinn Féin's motion because there are very good points in it. I ask Sinn Féin in a nice way to please stop objecting to people having family homes for themselves by desisting from objecting to their planning applications in the first place. That is the first thing I have to get out of the way.
We have a serious housing and affordability crisis. We have seen the Tánaiste promise to deliver 50,000 affordable houses at prices of less than €250,000. That promise has been broken for a long time because there is no such thing as affordable houses on the market anymore. It does not matter now whether someone is a teacher or a garda, which are the types of jobs that at one time would ensure people could go to their local bank manager and buy or build a house. They cannot do that anymore. For people in the countryside who want to build their own home, have a site and are able to get a mortgage, the first problem they have is getting planning permission. What is one of the biggest reasons for objections to planning permissions in rural areas? It is Green Party policies, which are ably supported by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. The Green Party has to be called out on that.
We have instances in rural Ireland where we have serial objectors. It is bad enough to be a person objecting to one house. I am not criticising genuine objections but when there are people with 20, 30 or 40 objections on the go at the same time, that has to be called out for what it is. It is abnormal behaviour and has to be called out as that. It is not natural, right or proper. Why would anybody want to interfere with somebody else's business? The idea of being able to object to something that is very far away from you is an issue. Only a development that affects you, your own property or your very near vicinity is one that a person, in normal ways of life, should be interested in objecting to or having concerns about. Why would a person up the country want to object to something in Kerry, a place that person might never have gone to or visited? Why should that person even have the right to object? I will always uphold people's right to object if they have a genuine concern about their own situation. Why is it right that we have a free-for-all for a dirty, rotten, miserable €20, where people can come along and spoil other people's hopes, dreams and aspirations of having their own house? That is wrong.
For another €200, objectors can hold up a project indefinitely by sending it off to Van Diemen's Land - An Bord Pleanála. An Bord Pleanála has to be called out tonight for what it does. It sends an inspector to look at a job. The inspector can write up a positive report. It goes before the board. Do not think that the board is some big, grand thing, when it might be two other people at a meeting. Those two people would not have visited the site. They can use their vote to object and the whole planning permission is upscuttled and people lose their shirt and a heap of paper.
I thank the Acting Chair for her forbearance in allowing us back in. We were late for our slot for one reason or another. I do not know what happened, since I was watching the debate, but sin scéal eile. I will follow on from what Deputy Healy-Rae said about Sinn Féin and objections.
Sinn Féin espouses what Deputy Ó Broin says and always listens to what he says about Housing for All, ideas, etc. I sat on the housing committee for five years, and they were the most difficult five years I ever had. Talk is great, but talk is cheap. Even though we are building houses now, control has gone away from local authorities and the people.
I salute a local builder from my area, Mr. Michael Flannery. He has done a great deal of building, including one-off houses and small extensions, and is now building entire housing schemes. He is a good, young, hard-working and energetic man. I have had many a row with him over various issues, including planning, but he is a worker. He took to the airwaves last week, appearing on Mr. Fran Curry's show on Tipp FM where he made a whole pile of sense. Mr. Curry was good to listen to him and engage with him. Mr. Flannery set out the problems and blockages - the bureaucracy, objections and costs - stopping us from building houses. He is building houses, to be fair to him. We cannot demonise all small builders and developers. I suppose we could call him a small developer, but developers are necessary. We always had them and they were encouraged, but now there is bureaucracy with the Office of the Planning Regulator, the EPA and the Van Diemen's Land of An Bord Pleanála. An Bord Pleanála has been an utter scandal for the past ten years and perhaps much longer. The matters that have come to light now are shocking. There are serial objectors.
I welcome the waiver of planning charges for the 12-month period. Many people got caught on the wrong side of it, but that is the way of all schemes, as they have finite times.
Mr. Flannery put it clearly. It was great to hear from a man who was in the business. He has to face everything. We in this House think we are great when we increase the minimum wage or the number of bank holidays with Lá Fhéile Bríde. We will have even more of it. There is extra sick pay. I am not anti-worker. I wish to declare that I have 25 employees in my own company. We have good relationships with them. Now, we in this House want paternity leave and to again introduce in a blaze of glory the five days of leave to do with domestic violence. I do not know what the right terminology is. How can any small builder or other employer continue working like this? It is just not possible. Look at all the health and safety measures that have been introduced. Some of them have been necessary, but it is over the top completely. There are legions of fellas and women going around now with briefcases who are inspectors of this, that and the other. They could not lay a block upon a block or even draw a picture of a block upon a block, but they know everything and they penalise the employers who are trying to be providers and enablers.
What is the Government doing to deal with pyrite and mica instead of penalising CRH? That company has been found guilty of crimes all over the world. It has been fined $100 million in some countries, but nothing at all here because Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been in its pockets for decades. Ask Mr. Seamus Maye about that and he will say it. There is a court case ongoing and there has been a fight for justice for 30 years. We put a levy on concrete to drive up the cost of houses again instead of dealing with the problem. We have a problem with bureaucracy and corruption. I have to say what is happening in that situation and many others.
Some 85% or 90% of the apartments in last year’s figures for new homes that the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, and the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, cite have been bought up by vulture funds. To hell with the Irish people. The figures are fictitious. That is why we have so many people homeless.
Then there are the Minister of State’s fine-weather friends in An Taisce, which is a serial objector. We saw what it did to the factory in Callan. An Taisce is anti-business. It is against people getting homes. Its people are all well heeled. They came down to north Tipperary and the lake opposite Killaloe and built fine houses hanging out into the lake. Now they are perched there like an eagle. If anyone else comes along, they pick him or her out and throw him or her into the sea. I am all right, Jack, and to hell with the ordinary people. Local people want to build in that vicinity, but now the people from An Taisce are there up in their fine big mansions, well paid and well heeled. An Taisce should be disbanded. Now, it did good work with Tidy Towns and other initiatives-----
Is the Deputy serious? That is a disgraceful comment.
-----but as far as its legions are concerned, they are well heeled and well paid members of the Judiciary, associate with them and everything else and they know all the avenues, stopping people providing their own homes.
It is time that we debunked all of these well-heeled organisations and provided people who want to, and can, build their own houses the wherewithal to do so and not have all of this inside in a big heap and mess and we have nothing only brus.
The Deputy’s time is up. I call Deputy Wynne.
I welcome the opportunity to speak on housing. We have had two housing debates back to back. The Government mentions big statistics from this year and last and improvements in its figures, but we have come from a very low point in the first place, and that is why the Government is not getting the positive reaction for which it has been hoping.
For months, I have been chasing progress on affordable housing schemes in Clare. One scheme of ten units was approved for Shannon even though it has a population of more than 10,000. Those units are due to be ready by June. I have also been chasing two affordable housing scheme applications for Ennis. Recently, we received news that 21 units would be developed over the next two years – 11 this year and ten next year – if everything with their delivery went to plan. I believe there is still an affordable housing scheme application outstanding. I hope that we will hear positive information about it soon.
Last October, the Minister stated that he was open to extending affordable housing schemes to other towns and villages in County Clare, for example, Kilrush. I had hoped that there would be some progress in that regard, as Kilrush is an area that, although it has been seeing small pockets of development, has not really seen housing developments in the past 20 years. There is no other town or village in its surrounds in west Clare. It is completely on its own. It does not have a neighbouring community to fall back on.
Last year, 93% of rental properties in Clare failed inspections. Their occupants are deemed the lucky ones because they have been able to secure private rental accommodation. I am constantly contacted by people who have applied for rental properties. For example, there are people who applied for more than 50 properties in two months at the start of this year but who only got one phone call back. In Shannon, house prices have increased by nearly 20% in one year. I constantly hear from employers who have been able to secure employees but those employees have not been able to get housing and, therefore, have been unable to move into the area and take up work. Housing is a major issue for getting the requisite staff.
I thank the Deputies for their contributions. I will try to address some of their queries and issues before making my statement.
Deputy O’Callaghan again asked a broad question about whether Housing for All was working. We believe it is. It is taking time, but it is delivering positive results. The Deputy also raised the issue of relationship breakdown. It is a reality and has an impact on housing need. Its fallout is something that local authorities must try to help with it in terms of housing provision.
Deputy Boyd Barrett said we were trumpeting our success. We certainly are not. We are outlining the successes and achievements of Housing for All to date. The facts speak for themselves and I will outline them in my closing.
The Deputy again raised the issue of investors buying up apartment blocks. We introduced significant measures in May 2021 to discourage the inappropriate bulk purchasing of houses, including taxation, planning and other measures like a higher 10% stamp duty levy on the cumulative purchase of ten or more residential properties, excluding apartments, in a 12-month period.
Deputy Harkin raised issues around the Housing Commission’s report. The Minister, Deputy O’Brien, will publish that report. Regarding the figure of 256,000 homes, we have had a significant population increase and considerable inward migration. This is a country with full employment and an attractive country in which to live. The Deputy raised the issue of regional imbalance previously.
Deputy Connolly again raised the issue of HAP in Galway. We note her points.
Deputy Michael Healy-Rae made some incredible points about the Green Party objecting to housing. I do not know where he got all of that from. He raised issues about planning objections, but the ability to comment on planning applications is a cornerstone of our planning system. A significant planning Bill that will streamline that process is making its way through the Houses of the Oireachtas.
The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has brought in significant reforms to An Bord Pleanála, as well as additional resourcing.
Deputy Mattie McGrath made an absolutely disgraceful comment in relation to disbanding An Taisce. The Deputy seems to have an issue with a prescribed body and its important role in the planning system. It was an utterly disgraceful comment from him.
Deputy Wynne raised specific issues and a couple of queries regarding County Clare. I will revert to her in relation to those, if that is okay.
I thank all the Deputies for their contributions. I echo the comments made by the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, and reassert the Government's commitment to tackling the challenges in the housing sector. We know these challenges are having a real impact on people's lives and the nation as a whole. We understand the urgency and need to ensure that people have safe, secure and affordable homes. We do not underestimate the scale of the challenge and we are putting in the work, day in, day out, to address the challenges and implement policies to steer the country out of this housing crisis.
Deputy Ó Broin's motion coupled with recent commentary do not fairly represent the efforts and progress the Government has made. The Deputy made the point that we need to increase affordable purchase and cost-rental accommodation. On this, we agree. The Government is doing just that. We delivered over 4,000 affordable solutions in 2023, more than doubling our activity only one year earlier, in 2022. It is important to note that in 2022, from a standing start, we delivered the first affordable homes in a generation. Our ambition is to deliver much more. It is imperative that we work with the local authorities and other delivery partners and redouble our efforts to deliver affordable housing via the fully funded and legislatively underpinned Housing for All plan and the schemes that are already up and running successfully.
Affordable housing is now being delivered across the country, with this momentum continuing into this year and beyond. It is the Government's intention that affordable housing will begin delivering on a much wider scale. We have already seen this happening, with the LDA having advertised applications for 600 new cost-rental apartments across four locations in Dublin and Kildare, through Project Tosaigh, in January of this year. In my constituency, Carlow and Kilkenny county councils have both received approval for their first affordable housing projects, which will be supported by the Affordable Housing Fund and will see much-needed affordable homes delivered in areas of the highest affordability need. Approved housing bodies are also active in this area, with one AHB approved for funding through support under the cost-rental equity loan to deliver 25 much-needed cost-rental homes in Kilkenny.
Deputy Ó Broin mentioned increasing rents but did not mention that over 1,600 cost-rental homes have already been delivered by the Government and that there are a further 1,400 in the pipeline. The Deputy neglected to mention that over €675 million of cost-rental equity loan funding will support the delivery of 3,250 cost-rental homes by AHBs. He neglected to mention the secure tenancy affordable rental scheme introduced by the Government with a commitment of €750 million in capital funding to support the delivery of cost-rental homes. He stated the Government was not doing enough, but it is clear that in the implementation of Housing for All, we have securely laid the foundation and built the pipeline that will allow us to continue to ramp up delivery in the coming years.
Housing for All includes a comprehensive suite of measures that address the viability gap and improve the affordability of housing. Two such measures are the help-to-buy and first home shared equity schemes. The first home scheme, in particular, has proven to be a key support for first-time buyers. This scheme continues to support first-time buyers and other eligible home buyers in purchasing new houses and apartments in the private market. In addition, since September 2023, the first home scheme has supported those who wish to build their own home. There were 809 approvals and 262 homes purchased under the first home scheme in quarter 1 of 2024 alone, and approvals are up 38% compared with quarter 1 of 2023. The Government has also recently committed to provide an additional €40 million to continue to drive affordable ownership for our citizens.
With regard to the help-to-buy scheme, to date, 47,596 claims have been made, of which 46,599 have been approved. This is a particularly well understood and well functioning scheme that is crucial to those first-time buyers who are struggling to save for a deposit. Recognising this, the Government has agreed to extend the scheme to the end of 2025.
We hear much commentary about housing targets being too low. Housing for All is an evidence-based living policy that is agile by design. It is under continuous review and when the research currently being undertaken by the ESRI is presented to the Government, the targets set out in Housing for All will be updated. The Taoiseach reiterated this earlier today. Setting the targets is one thing but building homes is another. Since taking office, the Government has delivered unprecedented levels of new homes, including the ramping up of affordable housing delivery. We are not stopping there.
With record levels of commencements and planning permissions granted, the progress made since the publication of Housing for All is evident. The most important action is to build new homes and we have exceeded the Housing for All overall targets to date. Almost 33,000 new homes were built in 2023 alone, with more than 109,000 new homes being built between 2020 and the end of quarter 1 of 2024. We are seeing further growth again this year as the plan and many initiatives have gained firm footing. Underpinned by rebounding planning permissions in 2023 and a surge in commencements this year on the back of the Government's development levy waiver, more than 18,000 new homes commenced in April, with some 53,000 homes having started on-site in the year to the end of April. Strong first-time buyer activity is reflected in mortgage approval and mortgage drawdown activity in 2023 and 2024 to date. The more than 30,400 first-time buyer approvals in 2023 represented an increase of 9% on the previous year.
Accompanying this increased activity has been record growth in mortgage drawdowns by first-time buyers in 2023, with some 25,600 mortgages drawn down in the period, the highest annual level since 2007. This represented some 500 first-time buyer drawdowns every week in 2023. Supporting this record delivery, the Government is providing €5.1 billion in capital investment in 2024, the highest level of funding for housing in the history of the State, to accelerate the delivery of new homes and increase the supply necessary to reduce homelessness and moderate house and rental prices.
I reiterate Housing for All is working. In its countermotion, the Government reflects these realities and makes a clear commitment to the core principles that everybody should have access to good quality housing to purchase or rent. We have achieved much since the plan was published but we know there is still a long road ahead. We recognise that there are still significant challenges. We will continue to do everything in our power to increase housing supply, address affordability challenges and ensure homes are delivered for our children and grandchildren and the generations to come.
Deputies Buckley, Kerrane and Funchion are sharing time.
I ask the Government to withdraw its countermotion. What we know so far about the Housing Commission report is that it calls for a radical reset of Government housing policy. That is what we call for in our motion. From what we have heard so far, the report indicates we have a deficit of over 256,000 houses. Some 23,500 homes would have to be built every year in addition to the targeted number the Government proposes just to clear the backlog.
I heard other Deputies speak about planning issues. There are issues with building on flood plains. We all know what happened in Midleton. I will cite an interesting statistic from The Echo today. I thank my Sinn Féin colleague, Deputy Gould, who obtained the relevant information through a freedom of information request. This is the heading, "More than 16,000 bids made on 70 local authority homes in Cork county". The article states:
More than 16,000 bids were made on just 70 local authority homes in Cork county in the first four months of 2024 ...
Data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act revealed there were 64,356 viewings of 70 properties ... on Cork County Council's choice-based letting ... system between January ... and May ... [of] this year.
For the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, to tell us the Government's policy is working is utter bonkers. We all meet people every day. I commend Cork city and county councils because they are shovelling snow while it is still snowing. There has to be a radical change here. We have to start thinking outside the box.
The Government has been reactive instead of proactive. That is why I mentioned flood plains. It is a willy-nilly approach. Houses are banged in on the cheapest spots.
In east Cork, 70% of the work my office does is related to housing. We hear the stories of people coming in, as others mentioned. They include a cancer patient who has children with heart defects. They are not being forced to move out of rented accommodation - I will be honest with the Minister of State in that regard - but they have to move out and there is no place for them to go. The offers are substandard and this tenant had to refuse an offer. Now she has been taken off the choice-based letting even though she is a cancer patient. Her child has a heart condition. She refused the offer because the property was dirty, damp and totally unsuitable.
The major revamp required in housing policy is to do what it says in the Housing Commission report. I ask the Minister of State to withdraw the countermotion and support our motion.
I met a member of the Defence Forces in my constituency office this week. He has two children with additional needs and his wife is their full-time carer. He has been in the Defence Forces for nearly 20 years. He is renting privately and is one of the fortunate ones in that his landlord has not increased the rent, not yet anyway. However, he understands the landlord will now sell the property he calls home. He is worried sick because he has no security for his family and no guarantee of a roof over his head. He earns too much to get a place on the social housing list and does not have the 10% deposit to qualify for the local authority home loan. He tried the help-to-buy scheme but it only offered him €7,000. Average house prices in County Galway are up again this year, with the average home costing €269,000. He has no way to come up with €26,000.
On the same day, I was contacted by someone renting privately in Ballinasloe. Again, this person's landlord is selling up and has given this individual a notice to quit. This is a consistent issue across counties Roscommon and Galway. As is the case every time I raise the issue of rents in Ballinasloe, there is not one single property to rent privately in Galway's county town. Galway County Council relies on homeless accommodation in Galway city, which is an hour away, is always full, and almost always running a waiting list. Where do we tell these people and young families to go? Today's Daft report shows rents rising again and again. The average monthly rent in counties Roscommon and Galway is more than €1,000.
My generation do not want to have to spend so much of their hard-earned wages on rent. My generation cannot afford to pay extortionate rents and save for a deposit. My generation certainly now feels that owning a home is not an option any more. My generation, as we did at the time we finished college in the early 2010s, are emigrating once again. These people want to live where they can afford to rent and put a roof over their head, and not just work to pay bills, insurance and rent. That life should be here for them in Ireland but it is not. That is partly due to the failing housing policy of this Government. If it were working, we would not have rising rents, rising house prices and rising homelessness.
I remind everybody that we have a surplus of money in this country. We are not in any way a poor country. However, yesterday, the Children's Rights Alliance released figures in its annual child poverty monitor, which clearly show that for many families rent affordability is still the single biggest driver of child homelessness. The number of children living in emergency accommodation increased from 2,811 in March 2022 to 3,472 in March 2023. As of March 2024, 4,147 children call bed and breakfast accommodation or a hotel room home. We are robbing the childhoods of these children. In fact, the Government is robbing their childhoods. We cannot continually talk about the housing crisis. At this point, it has gone beyond crisis. The Government is well aware of the situation but continues to do nothing about it.
The Government is driving record numbers of children into homelessness. There is no doubt children are being seriously failed by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. I remind people of the child poverty unit that the former Taoiseach, Deputy Leo Varadkar, set up to try to tackle child poverty. I am not sure what happened to that unit or whether it is still even in existence with the new Taoiseach in place, but certainly absolutely nothing was done to tackle the situation of child poverty. We know that one of the key factors in this is the cost of rent.
One year on, family homelessness has risen to levels that were just unthinkable a decade ago. Last year, Ireland was examined by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. In its concluding observations, that committee urged Ireland to address "the root causes of homelessness among children". The committee called for the phasing out of emergency accommodation and an increase in the supply of long-term social housing. What has happened in the intervening year is the reverse. Child poverty levels have risen with 31,682 children now living in poverty, according to last year's reports, and child homelessness has increased by 500%. How can anybody stand over those figures? Every day that we see this Government continue in office, the worse things are getting for children. I honestly do not know how anybody can sit on the Government benches and not acknowledge how unbelievable it is.
I will give a few examples of what the housing crisis actually means for people. It means people cannot access a housing assistance payment, HAP, property. They are constantly searching but cannot find a place to rent within their HAP means. It means people, mainly women, coming out of domestic violence situations. I have lost track of the number of those cases I have dealt with in the past year. Women are coming into my office saying they should not have even left their relationship because they are in the domestic violence shelter for much longer than they should be. They are then going into emergency accommodation and thinking, "What have I done? Here I am with my children." Can you imagine that we have a situation where women are thinking they would nearly be better off going back to those relationships because the housing situation is so bad? That is all at the hands of this Government.
Across the whole area of the south east, including counties Waterford, Wexford and Wicklow, and counties Cork, Tipperary, Clare, Limerick and Kerry, homeownership has totally collapsed. As my colleague, Deputy Kerrane, said, young people have totally lost hope of owning a home. They are emigrating not because they cannot find work, which we saw in the past in this country, but because they have no hope of ever owning a home. It is very clear that the Government does not have the skills, ability or will to fix the housing crisis. Political will, political priorities and political choices are at the heart of all this. The very first speech I gave in the Dáil in 2016 related to the housing crisis. Eight years later, we are all still talking about the same situation. That is down to the political will not being there to solve this situation.
If or when Sinn Féin is in government, it will deliver the biggest public housing programme in the history of the State. We will deliver affordable homes for families and drive down child homelessness. Sinn Féin will support homeowners and speed up the construction of homes so families can begin their lives in the comfort of a home they can call their own. I stress that at the heart of all this are children who are being totally and utterly failed at the hands of this Government. These are children who cannot have playdates, birthday parties or all the things so many of us take for granted for our children because they have to call emergency accommodation, bed and breakfast accommodation or a hotel room home. That is the children we know of in those situations. Many more are trying to live where three, four and five families are in one house.
I urge everyone to support the motion. I reiterate the call by Deputy Buckley for the Government to withdraw its countermotion.
Amendment put.
The division is deferred until the weekly division time tomorrow evening.
