Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 5 Dec 2023

Vol. 1047 No. 1

Renters: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members]

The following motion was moved by Deputy Eoin Ó Broin on Tuesday, 5 December 2023:

That Dáil Éireann:

notes that:

— Fine Gael have been in Government for 12 years;

— Fianna Fáil have been propping them up for seven years;

— during that time the housing crisis has gone from bad to worse;

— rents are at an all-time high and rising; and

— the Government have missed the social and affordable housing targets three years in a row;

notes with extreme concern that:

— standardised average new rents in Dublin have increased by €4,716 and State-wide by €3,816 since this Government was formed;

— the latest Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) Q2 2023 Rent Index Report showed new rents increasing by 11.6 per cent, the highest annual increase since RTB records started in 2007, while rents for existing tenants rose by five per cent State-wide;

— in Dublin the increase is even more dramatic in financial terms, while rents are up 10 per cent on Q2 last year that amounts to an annual increase of €2,916; and

— twenty counties had rental inflation of over 10 per cent with many in the high teens; and

calls on the Government to:

— immediately introduce an emergency three-year ban on rent increases for existing and new tenancies; and

— put a full month's rent back in every private renter's pocket and increase supply of affordable properties to rent and buy.

Debate resumed on amendment No. 1:

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

"notes:

— that the Government is fully committed to ensuring an increase in the supply of affordable high-quality rental accommodation through continued significant capital investment, including Cost Rental, to accelerate delivery of housing for the private and social rental sectors and stabilising rents;

— that building on the enhanced tenancy protections introduced by this Government, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is close to concluding a comprehensive review of the private rental sector, which takes into account the significant regulatory changes over the past several years;

— the extension of Rent Pressure Zones, which now cover 77 per cent of the country and where rent increases are capped at two per cent per annum;

— the increase in the rent tax credit to €750 in Budget 2024, and the introduction of other legislative requirements to support renters;

— that the Government has approved the general scheme of the Residential Tenancies (Right to Purchase) Bill for priority drafting and publication during this Oireachtas session, to legislate for a 'right to purchase' where their landlord intends to sell the dwelling;

— the increase in the thresholds for access to Cost Rental homes, which was increased from €53k net to €66k net in Dublin and €59k outside Dublin in July 2023;

— that interventions such as the Cost Rental Tenant in Situ Scheme (CRTiS) are making a real impact in providing secure, long-term homes and preventing homelessness, and to date in 2023 over 1,300 social housing acquisitions have been completed with a further 1,260 at various stages of the assessment and conveyance process; and

— the CRTiS was introduced on 1st April, 2023 for tenants in private rental homes who are not eligible for social housing supports but who are at risk of homelessness, and the Housing Agency is engaging with more than 130 landlords with a view to the purchase of those homes;

acknowledges that increased supply is key to meeting demand and moderating the pent-up pressures in the private rental sector and welcomes that:

— Housing for All – A New Housing Plan for Ireland is successfully supporting a significantly increased supply of new homes, with almost 30,000 new homes built in 2022, an increase of 45 per cent on 2021 and 5,250 homes or 21 per cent higher than the Housing for All – A New Housing Plan for Ireland target of 24,600;

— the data on the number of residential construction starts show 26,547 homes have been commenced in the first ten months of 2023; and this is a 16.6 per cent increase on the same period last year (22,760); and

— more than 22,400 homes have been built to end-September 2023, with the Housing for All – A New Housing Plan for Ireland targets, or 29,000 and 33,450, expected to be met, if not exceeded, in 2023 and 2024 respectively; and

recognises that considerable progress has been made since the publication of Housing for All – A New Housing Plan for Ireland (September 2021) including:

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

— from a standing start, 1,757 affordable homes delivered in 2022, the first full year of affordable housing delivery in a generation and that a very ambitious programme of affordable housing is now in place; and this momentum is continuing as the pipeline of affordable housing develops further by local authorities, by Approved Housing Bodies and by the Land Development Agency; and

agrees that 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 for Housing, Local Government and Heritage).

Deputy Martin Kenny

The reality is that across the whole State, rents are rising all the time. The latest report from last week shows us that even in my counties of Leitrim and Sligo, rents are up again; they are up everywhere. People cannot afford to continue this and the only solution we can come up with that will solve this issue is to have a freeze on rents. The Minister says that would put people out of the market but people are already going out of the market because property prices are going so high. That is why they are going out of the market; it has nothing to do with rents or any of that. Yet, the Minister continues to say we do not have any solutions. Clearly the Minister has no solutions because none of the things he is doing are working. Every time we have come in here for the past four years, the Minister has been telling us he has a plan that will work and every time we come in here we debate houses getting more expensive to buy, rents getting more expensive and mortgages being less available to people. That is the reality for ordinary people out there.

The Minister mentioned the tenant in situ scheme. I had a man come into my office this week who is suffering with cancer. He has been renting a house for eight years and he is on the housing assistance payment, HAP. The landlord has given him the notice to quit and he has to leave that house in February. However, the house is deemed as a three-bedroom house. It is a small house but because it is deemed as a three-bedroom house he is told that the council cannot buy it because he is overhoused for the size of the house.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien

We have changed that

Deputy Martin Kenny

That is the reality for many people around the country. The Government comes up with these schemes but it puts so many different problems, issues and conditions on them that they are unavailable to many people. The Minister needs to recognise that this has been a failure and put a ban on rent increases in place.

Deputy Martin Browne

The Minister has just shown that the Government's maths are the reason we are in this crisis. This morning, in reply to Deputy McDonald, the Taoiseach spoke about 4,000 new homeowners. In less than 12 hours the Minister has brought that figure up to 5,000. We will have the problem solved by the end of the week if that keeps going.

The yearly increase for new tenancies in Tipperary has hit a staggering 10.4%, bringing average rents to €939, while for existing tenancies the increase is 5.9%, bringing their average rent to €773. This is because the Government's policies have created a shortage of housing, thus driving up the cost of housing and rents and putting councils into impossible situations. Sinn Féin has tried to get this Government to change its failed course of action but it just will not listen. In our housing budget we put the focus on delivering affordable homes and rents because what is left out there is largely unaffordable for many constituents I deal with. Yet the latest affordable housing data has the premier county at zero because of the Minister's slow progress in improving the roll-out. This contributes to soaring rents in Tipperary and to families having to accept damp and unsuitable accommodation, some of which should be condemned.

We set out how to deliver 21,000 social, affordable rental and affordable purchase homes next year by increasing investment, cutting red tape and using more vacant and derelict homes, among other measures to deliver affordable homes. Like the Government's record on affordable housing delivery, its approach to making use of the tens of thousands of vacant properties is equally atrocious. The flawed vacant property refurbishment grant scheme has not issued a single grant payment in Tipperary. Much of the problem stems from how the grant is paid in arrears, putting the onus on the applicant to pay the money up front at a time of soaring rents and high living costs. We would make it work by increasing capital funding to councils to see up to 4,000 vacant and derelict properties bought and refurbished for social and affordable purchase and rental.

When policies do not work for the families, workers and young people they are aimed at, then we should respond to make it work. That is why we need an immediate three-year ban on rent increases and a month's rent back in renter's pockets until the mess of decades of bad Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael housing policy can be cleared up. The people of Tipperary who cannot access affordable housing or rents cannot cope with the consequences of the Government's failed approach any more.

Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh

I am sorry that the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, has left the Chamber because he referred to the eviction bans and we are blue in the face from asking for a no-fault eviction ban. The reason we are doing so came to the fore for me last week when a mother of two young children rang me. The eldest child was four and she said that if tears could build a house she would have a house without a problem. Her children had just found out about Santa Claus and they kept asking her why they had not put up a tree and why they could not put up decorations. She had to try to explain to him that they would be moving because she had an eviction notice for the following Sunday. She had to explain that they would be moving and they did not want to confuse Santa Claus. This is the reality on the ground.

Mayo has the second-highest rate of rent increases for new tenancies, a staggering 18.5% in one year. That is the situation workers and families that are trying to put roofs over their heads are facing. Even for people staying in the same property, their rents have gone up. One woman who I spoke to this week has to try to find €700 to €1,100 per month. Every day brings more people calling to my constituency offices, desperately seeking help with housing. A 50-year-old man with a lifelong illness has been forced to either sleep on a camp bed in his elderly mother's one-bedroom flat or sleep in his car. He has been doing this for more than a year. A single parent with her two children had to leave their home and the two children had to move into their grandmother's house, where there were already nine people living in overcrowded situations. The mum had to couch surf for four and a half months. This is the reality for people in Mayo. When the Minister comes in here to congratulate the Government on what it has done, I would ask him to spend one day outside my constituency office in Ballina to see what the reality is like.

Deputy Johnny Mythen

The recent Residential Tenancies Board report states that new rents have increased annually by 11.6% and that existing rents have risen by 5%. This represents the highest annual increase on record. The latest figures for inflation show that it is 3.6% in Ireland. The consumer price index has risen by 5.1%. Food is up by 7%. Electricity, gas and fuels are all up by 7.2%. When these costs are combined with the extortionate rent increases, one can see why something must be done immediately for renters. Young couples, singles and single parents are at the mercy of the private market, the so-called free market, which is exploiting the oldest market ploy in the book, of supply versus demand.

The truth of the matter is that two in three people are renting because they cannot afford a house, while the Government has missed the social and affordable housing targets three years in succession. We now have generation rent. It is a whole generation of people without security of tenure, which piles on even more anxiety and stress on adults and children alike, adding to further societal breakdowns and families shattering under financial pressures. More than 15,000 households received eviction notices in the first nine months of this year and at least 10,000 will be due to have left their homes by Christmas. Therefore, it is reasonable and responsible to immediately introduce a three-year ban on rent increases, including for new tenancies. It is reasonable to call for an increase in affordable housing to rent or buy. It is reasonable to ask for a full month's rent to be returned to every private renter's pocket.

These measures are practical and workable but there also needs to be an ideological change in the current Government's policies. These policies favour the big developers and vulture funds and are not in line with improving the overall welfare of the State. In my county, Wexford, rents average €1,119, with a year-on-year change of 16.3%. This is unsustainable. Renters need far more support now before it is too late. I appeal to all TDs to please support this motion.

Deputy Dessie Ellis

Renters' greatest concerns are security of tenure and affordable rents. In this dysfunctional rental market, during this rental crisis, neither of these concerns is realistically achievable. I regularly had people coming into my constituency office or ringing us to say they had been given notice to quit from their rental property. There is nowhere for them to go once they have vacated the property. Families are in despair, knowing that within a few months, they could find themselves on the street with no proper supports or the option of alternative accommodation. Many monthly rental payments are higher than mortgage repayments. The rental crisis is causing a brain drain from this country. We are losing some of our finest and most qualified graduates and skilled workers because they cannot find a property to rent. When they do, they cannot afford the astronomical rents, never mind buy one.

High rents also impact on other areas of an individual's life. Families have to pay a range of other costs that place a great strain on their finances. Increasing energy costs, childcare costs, healthcare costs, the cost of transport and much more are placing a great financial burden on people and families, particularly during this cost-of-living crisis. There has been a significant increase in the ratio of people dependent on rental accommodation. According to Threshold, one in five households now live in rental accommodation, compared with one in ten in the 1990s. This is a sizable proportion of the population, many of whom will never be able to own their homes because of the drain on their income because of exorbitant rents. People need some relief from this rental crisis. There has to be a significant freeze on rent increases for three years to give renters some breathing space. Most importantly, there needs to be a significant increase in social and affordable housing. While the Government maintains its current policies, we will remain in an ongoing crisis situation without any foreseeable resolution of the rental and housing crisis or any respite for already struggling individuals and families.

Deputy Ivana Bacik

I am glad to support this motion on behalf of the Labour Party. I am happy to see this issue being raised tonight. The housing crisis, as we know, is the civil rights issue of our times here in Ireland. I think there is agreement on that across the House. It was acknowledged by the Minister in his speech that we have a crisis which is challenging for anyone seeking to rent or buy right now due to the chronic housing shortage. We know that the social consequences of failed housing policies from Government are significant for people from all walks of life.

In the past, we saw a problematic overreliance on the private rented sector but when there was more supply of housing, it caused less of a crisis for many people. Now that there is such a shortage of houses to buy or indeed to rent, the private rental sector has become completely overwhelmed. I think the Minister acknowledged that. All the while, we see, across different demographics, people being forced to stay on in their childhood bedrooms, including young professionals and workers who would, in previous times, have been expected to be able to, at the very least, afford to rent a place of their own, if not to buy their own place. Now they simply cannot do so. I regularly meet constituents and the parents of constituents who are deeply concerned that they cannot even get into renting and will have to keep staying in their childhood bedrooms. Equally, I meet people who are a little older. Just last week, I spoke to a constituent approaching their fiftieth birthday, who is in long-term rental, with a decent, fair rent, but who is in absolute terror that at some point, they will be served with a notice to quit and will simply not be able to afford anywhere to rent, and have given up on ever being able to buy.

This is creating really serious issues for people. Parents who rent tell me that they are trying to contend with the stress of worrying that an eviction notice will uproot them and their children from the local area and the support network with local schools. The fear of being asked to leave itself has such a terrible effect on anxiety for so many, including parents and others. The knock-on consequences societally are immense.

Our social welfare and pension systems are predicated on the assumption that those who reach their mid-60s will have achieved mortgage-free home ownership. That is really the bedrock of our social protection and pension systems. We are all aware of that. That presumption simply no longer holds water. I have met people in my own constituency who are approaching their 60s and facing the prospect of homelessness because they are still renting and are simply concerned about not being able to continue to afford to do so once they retire. This is a really serious issue. There are pensioners who pay taxes and have contributed to the economy their whole lives on the basis that they will be supported in older age, but they cannot find anywhere to live if they face eviction. This is a really heartbreaking and shameful prospect.

There have been a number of different Opposition attempts to put forward constructive policies and proposals to Government on housing and rental. In Labour, we have consistently used our own Private Members' time to try to provide different pathways to addressing the crisis of housing. Most recently, in the Seanad, Labour Senators tabled a motion on tackling vacancy and dereliction to deliver homes to a greater extent. We tabled a Bill to implement the Kenny report to control the price of building on land. We tabled a Dáil motion calling on Government to use the winter eviction ban last year to ease the immense pressures on families in the private rental sector. Two years ago, we tabled a Bill to bring Irish renters' rights legislation into line with most other European countries and to provide greater security of tenure, in particular.

The Minister will also know that I wrote to him and to the chairperson of the housing committee, seeking time to debate our homeless families Bill, tabled by Labour to ensure that children would be prioritised in emergency accommodation settings. Our hope is that at some point, the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, and the Government will be prompted by all of these initiatives from us and other Opposition parties to realise that there is time to change and to engage constructively on these issues. The topic of renters' rights in particular is one on which we should see much more concerted action from Government.

This is an issue that concerns so many people. It is not a niche issue. I think all of us have rented at some point. In my own constituency, Dublin Bay South, almost half of households are in the private rental sector. It is the constituency with the highest proportion of private rental households in the country. The CSO tells us that more than 500,000 households rent. It is baffling that the Government has been so slow to tackle reform of this very challenged sector. We see such a sizeable proportion of the population affected and yet, just last week, the Residential Tenancies Board reported the single highest annual hike in new rents since its records began in 2007. It is extraordinary at a time when most of the country is in a rent pressure zone. We are seeing egregious breaching of the rent pressure zone rules through this massive hike in rents nationally. Looking at Dublin, renters are facing a 5.5% increase in rents, well above the purported 2% cap.

What are renters to do in this situation? Our current laws and frameworks require that the onus is on renters to seek to enforce rules. We need a much stronger public policy response because in a market of such chronic shortage, where renters are simply afraid to raise their heads above the parapet for fear of angering a landlord, it is simply not good enough. What we are seeing, therefore, is a system where the few rules to protect renters that are in place are routinely flouted. Instead of seeking to address this, the Government has provided one-off giveaways amounting to less than a month's rent, or providing tax breaks to landlords in the budget, and these measures are simply not dealing with the issue. We know more than 15,000 eviction notices were issued in the first nine months of 2023 and the RTB report demonstrates the immense pressure that all of those served with such notices will be under financially when they look to find a new home. Again, I speak about the stress and anxiety involved in this too. Therefore, the so-called no-fault eviction process needs to be addressed. We said, back in March, that lifting the temporary no-fault eviction ban was a catastrophic calculation. No effective contingency plans were in place. I am looking at the Government's countermotion and some of the measures are referenced as effective contingency plans. This is far from the truth. At the moment, I am dealing with one family who have been given a notice to quit and are seeking to operate the Government's own cost-rental tenant in situ scheme. Their experience, which is replicated across the country, exposes the real problem, which is the real lack of effectiveness of any contingency plans. What we found is, even though the landlord in this case is very willing and, indeed, wants to sell to a family who have been renting the property, there is an enormous discrepancy between the market value of the house and the Housing Agency valuation. I am engaging on behalf of the family with the Housing Agency but I am finding that there is no way of addressing this glaring discrepancy of tens of thousands of euro between these two valuations. This exposes the real practical problems with this so-called silver-bullet scheme that was supposed to be introduced as one of the contingency measures to support renters in this sort of scenario. This family is in absolutely desperate straits. The landlord is also very distressed because this is a decent landlord who wants to do the right thing, yet the scheme is simply not working. In reality, far more effective measures need to be introduced by Government. We are calling on the Government to take on the renters rights Bill we put forward in this House two years ago, which the Government did not oppose on Second Stage. Indeed, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, made a speech that was rather supportive of its principles. The Bill would restrict no-fault evictions, create a rent register to ensure transparency around rates of rent, and it would introduce greater autonomy for renters, for example enabling rights like the right to rent an unfurnished home. These are simple basic rights in existence across European countries but we do not have them here.

We must provide greater protections for renters. We must ensure that effective rules are introduced, which are also enforced and effective, to address security of tenure, which is the critical issue for so many renters, regulation of rents. The reality is that renting is simply not working for people currently but many are unable to afford or have the option of buying and many are unable to find anywhere affordable to rent. That is why we are seeing so many in emergency homelessness. Others have spoken of the figures but they are extraordinarily shameful. Some 13,000 people are in homelessness and emergency accommodation. Renters are up against it on all fronts. It seems the Government is not prioritising protections for renters, yet they are a critical mass of people. Each individual renter deserves the sort of protections that are taken for granted in any other European country. Many of us will have family and friends who are renting in other European countries; I know I do. They are appalled at the lack of protections for renters here. It is regarded as so normal and so usual to have a security of tenure and to have a right to rent a home you can furnish and make into a home yourself. What we do not have in this country is that sort of protection. We have for far too long seen rental properties as investment opportunities and that has been the focus. We need to start seeing rental properties as homes.

Deputy Cian O'Callaghan

There is a danger here that we almost get used to this response from Government and become desensitised to it. It is not a response. What has happened here is not acceptable. We have record levels of homelessness and rent and very clear data showing that rent regulation has been utterly flouted across this country. What happens? The Minister responds to this motion, which I thank Deputy Ó Broin for tabling, with a few comments mainly attacking the Opposition, and then legs it out of the House two minutes later. That is his response to record homelessness, record rents and clear data unequivocally showing that rent regulation is being utterly flouted. He just legs it out of the Chamber. That is not okay. Anyone watching this debate who lives in this country, any renter, or anyone who is concerned about the housing situation or homelessness, has a right to expect a serious, considered response from the Government to this. That is not what has happened.

Homelessness levels have never been so high. We have more than 13,000 for the first time living in homeless emergency accommodation. Almost 4,000 children growing up without a home are going to spend Christmas in emergency accommodation along with 190 pensioners. This is very clearly related to the rental sector and the fact that we have some of the highest rents in Europe, and very much related to the data that has just published, which show that rents in the past 12 months in new tenancies are up by 11.6%; the highest increase since records began in 2007.

Just three years ago, when the Government took office, the average monthly rent was €1,226. It is now €1,574 per month, which is an increase of €350 per month or €4,000 per year. The data released shows that rents for existing tenancies went up by 5.3% in the past year. This is existing tenancies, not new tenancies. All of Dublin is a rent pressure zone so rents are not meant to go up by more than 2% annually in existing tenancies under any circumstances. However, rents for existing tenancies in Dublin were up 5.5%. This clearly shows the rent regulations and laws, as we have all being saying for a long time, are being flouted left, right and centre. When he came in, the Minister said that this RTB data "is the most reliable source of data on rents". He then dismissed what the board said about rent regulation by saying the data is not a measure of compliance. That is technically true because the data was not designed to be a measure of compliance. It is a purely semantic argument. This is, as the Minister said, the most comprehensive data on rents. It was not designed as a measure of compliance and, therefore, technically, it is not a measure of compliance. However, let us be very clear. The most comprehensive data we have ever had clearly shows that rent regulation is being utterly flouted and is not working. What did the Minister say he was going to do about this? Actually, he did not say he was going to do anything about it. He spent the rest of his time attacking the Opposition. He did not say he was going to do anything about this at all - nothing, nada, zero. He is the Minister for housing, responsible for the highest level of people who are homeless in the history of this country. He has clear and hard data showing his rent regulation laws are not working or being adhered to and he did not say he is going to do anything about it at all. That is a totally unacceptable situation. He now has hard data. He said it is the most reliable data we have, but if he thinks there is something wrong with it or if it is not sufficient around compliance, he should make sure it is made sufficient or that sufficient data is collected. More importantly, now that he has that hard data, as does the RTB, the Minister should tell us what he will do to make sure rent regulations are enforced. If he does not want to agree with Opposition Members who want to see an absolute rent freeze for the next number of years, he should at least tell us how he will ensure his laws and his rules are enforced and workable. He does not tell us that. He just seems to shrug his shoulders as if it has nothing to do with him at all. He is the Minister for housing.

It is worth making the point that rent regulation across Europe is adhered to and governments enforce the laws around it. They do not just shrug their shoulders and say it has nothing to do with the. Regulation is a normal part of rental sectors across Europe.

Countries with larger rental sectors than ours regulate their rents; that is just normal. Switzerland, for example, where 52% of households rent, regulates its rents. This is just a normal thing to do. In fact, the norm is that where people pay their rent in such countries, they cannot then be subject to eviction. When a landlord sells, they pay the rent into a different bank account. That is all that happens.

I want to address the issue of rent increases outside RPZs. The data clearly shows that rent regulation is being flouted everywhere, within rent pressure zones and otherwise. In some parts of the country where there are no RPZs, some renters have been hit with staggering rent increases of 75%, which are not affordable for anyone in any way at all. The way the rent pressure zone rules are written is such that some people will never be covered by a zone because the rules require a certain number of data points and because of the local electoral areas where those people live. There are never enough data points or registered rent increases for those areas to come into the RPZ rules. In addition, because of the way the rules are written, those people are in areas that will simply never have average rents greater than those in areas such as Cork city, Galway city or Limerick city, so such areas will never qualify as RPZs. Even if the Minister does not agree with Opposition proposals on rents, that is something the Government could fix if it wanted to do so.

There is another thing that would help renters and people in homelessness. This happens where renters have not broken the rental agreement but do not get their deposit back from the landlord. It is withheld. That means they look for somewhere new to live and simply do not have a deposit. They can end up in homelessness. This was legislated for in 2015 so it is on the Statute Book. It would be a good situation and a fair system for landlords as well in situations where the landlord, unfairly, does not have a deposit from the renter to withhold; let us say the renter does not pay the rent for the last month or whatever. It is a system that would pay for itself. In fact, in jurisdictions where it has been introduced, not only does it pay for itself but it also allows some income to cover regulation costs because, obviously, interest accrues from the deposits held under the deposit protection scheme.

When I asked the Minister about this in April of this year, he told me he was "looking at it". That is no good to renters who become homeless because they have handed over a deposit, have not breached the rental agreement, did not get the deposit back, could waiting a long time as that goes through the dispute resolution process with the RTB, and cannot get a deposit together for somewhere new. The fact that the Minister who has been in office for almost four years is "looking at it" is of no use to anyone who may become homeless.

I suppose that is better, though, than what he said about rent regulation being flouted because he did not even tell us this evening that he is looking at that. He did not say he was doing anything about it. He did not indicate anything.

It is not too much to ask, in the context of the highest ever number of people who will spend Christmas in homeless emergency accommodation, including almost 4,000 children and 190 pensioners, the highest ever rents on record and some of the highest rents in Europe, and the most complete data on rents we have ever had, which the Minister accepts as being the most complete data that clearly shows that the rent regulations are not working and are being flouted, that the Government would actually tell us what it will do about this. It would be good if it were to support the proposals that we in the opposition have put forward - that would be the best thing to do - but if it is not going to do that, it should just tell us what it is it will actually do to address this. It now has the hard data. Will it ensure that the RTB is resourced properly to go after every landlord in the country who breaches its rent regulation laws, and when will it do that? Or is it just another case of the Government shrugging its shoulders and saying it has nothing to do with it?

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett

I cannot remember the last time we had a debate on the housing crisis, the rental crisis or the homelessness crisis when the Minister for housing stayed for even half the debate. There is a studied contempt - I have said this before but it is very clear now - for the Opposition and, most importantly, for the public affected by the housing and homelessness crisis, the rental crisis and the unaffordability crisis in housing on the part of the Government. It is quite extraordinary that, in the brief time he was here, the Minister could claim the Government's policies were working and spend most of his time slagging off the Opposition rather than acknowledging the dire crisis we face.

The average rent in Dublin is now €2,100 per month. That is €25,200 per year of somebody's after-tax income. After they have paid tax, they have to pay €25,000 in rent. What does that work out at as a percentage of even the average worker's income, never mind hundreds of thousands of workers who earn way below the average? The average worker pays two thirds to three quarters of his or her income on rent. It is absolutely crucifying and unsustainable for people. Of course, if they are on a lower income than that, they are really screwed. More people are being forced to pay these rents, and rents in Dublin have gone up by 10% in the past year. Has the Government compensated for the 10% increase in the cost of accommodation in any of its budget measures? Not even close. If people are renters, they are getting poorer - it is as simple as that - and being pushed to the pin of their collars, to the point, in many cases, that they just cannot manage.

That is if they have managed to get a place at that level of rent. If they are looking for somewhere and are among the 12,800 people who are homeless, they are really screwed, unless they are right at the top of the housing list. Many people might be three, four or five years on the list. One would think that when they have been three, four or five years on the list, they would be fairly near the top. Not at all - not in Dublin. People are looking at years and years of waiting. They are then told to go find a HAP tenancy. The maximum HAP rate is just over €1,900; the average rent is €2,100. I was looking just today on daft.ie. RTB indexes are all very interesting but they are not where people go if they are looking for a place to rent because they are in emergency accommodation and reliant on HAP. They go to daft.ie and myhome.ie and look at what is available in their area within the HAP limits. The answer is nothing, or maybe one or two houses, which 200 or 300 people are trying to chase. As soon as they tell them they need HAP, they can pretty much take it they will not get the house. The landlords will not say it to them because it would be illegal for them to say it, but everybody knows what is going on.

If people could possibly be in a worse position than chasing the needle in a haystack that is a HAP tenancy in Dublin within the HAP limits, it is if their income is just over the HAP limit and the social housing threshold limit such that they are not entitled even to that. Then they are really banjaxed, like a woman I have mentioned I do not know how many times in here who has now nearly completed, with her now 12-year-old son, her fourth year in emergency accommodation sharing a bed with her son. Let us imagine that, for four years. She works for a public sector agency - ironically, looking after vulnerable children. However, because she is earning and working or slightly over the limit, there is nothing for her.

She is being left to rot in emergency accommodation. Then we get talk from the Government that cost rental is coming. However, it never comes in the volumes necessary to deal with the situation. A tiny bit comes and it is a lottery. It is like needles in haystacks for people hoping they might get one of these cost rental units. It is an absolute disaster, and 12,800 people, including 5,000 people under the age of 24 and 4,000 children, will suffer the consequences of this over the next few weeks during Christmas. Thousands more people are in chronically overcrowded conditions that are not reminiscent but a carbon copy of the sort of conditions about which people such as Seán O'Casey wrote at the turn of the last century, with two or three generations of people crammed in together. People are sleeping on couches and people are sharing beds with their children. I had another phone call today from a woman who is Ukrainian. She is sharing a bedroom with a number of children and she is trying to go out to work. She cannot believe the conditions she is living in. This is all over the place.

The Government says it will not do anything about it. At the very minimum the Government could do what Sinn Féin is asking. We would go a bit further than the motion. We believe rents should be set at levels that are affordable. This is done in many countries in Europe. Rents are set and people cannot charge more than the rate at which they are set for accommodation. That is it. Those rents are set at levels that are reasonably affordable for ordinary people. This is what should happen. It can be done but the Government will not do it because it seems the landlords have to be allowed, according to the Government, to charge these absolutely disgusting obscene rents that nobody could possibly afford or people are being crucified to pay them. Why can the Government not do what they do everywhere else in Europe? Why can it not control the housing market generally in order to ensure the supply of efficient social and affordable housing?

I went to an ICTU meeting on housing recently where a woman from Vienna spoke about how a new measure has been passed there whereby 60% of all new housing developments must be either social or affordable. Here we have 10% social and 10% affordable. This means 80% of what is being built is unaffordable. The only people who can buy these houses are big investment funds which then charge absolutely extortionate rents. Worse, in some cases, they sit on empty properties because they are buying it only as an investment. The Government is not doing anything about it either.

In addition to what Sinn Féin proposes, which is to freeze rents for three years and give more back to people in rent, we believe we should set rents at affordable levels. Obviously, the Government should introduce not only a temporary eviction ban but a no-fault eviction ban. As Deputy O'Callaghan said, in most of civilised Europe, in countries that do not have particularly left-wing governments but where they have a proper rental market, if people pay their rents they do not get evicted. They are not put through that misery. Here it is okay it seems to put people out on the street who have done absolutely nothing wrong.

The trauma that people have to go through is shocking. I am sure the Minister knows this and if he does not know it, he should. Families, elderly people, people with children and children at school are being forced through this trauma and left trapped in homelessness, often for years. It is shocking and damages the well-being and mental health of those children and families for years to come. Sometimes it does permanent damage to their sense of well-being. We are allowing this to happen but we do not have to. We could just say we will not allow this to happen. We could get the State to properly intervene and state this is not a market but a basic human right and we will make sure this right will be available to everybody so they can have affordable and secure housing.

Deputy Peter Fitzpatrick

In recent years Ireland's private rental sector has been used to plug the gap left by reduced social housing availability. The total number of occupied rental properties in the 2022 census was 513,704. However, while the ten-year housing plan may bring relief in the long term, more immediate action is needed to relieve the burden on renters. Combined with booming demand from private renters, properties are in short supply. The number of homes available to rent across the country remains low, meaning the Government's failure to deliver genuinely affordable homes is driving up rents. For example, there are 34 properties available to rent in the whole of County Louth on daft.ie, a county with a population of 167,607 people.

People are queuing down the street for a room. A total of 40% of private tenants in Ireland pay more than 30% of their net income on rent. They spend more on rent than they would if they had a mortgage. According to the Residential Tenancies Board's rent index report for the second quarter of 2023, substantial rent increases were recorded for the period from April to June 2023. In Meath, the average rent in new tenancies grew by 5% to €1,501 while in Louth it grew by 4.4% to €1,295. This is a 14.4% increase on the figure for the second quarter of 2022.

People are being crucified. In Ireland, many of the people now classed as homeless were evicted from the private rented sector and have been unable to find affordable housing again. The rental crisis is reflected in the numbers of people on Louth County Council's housing list and the number of people presenting as homeless. Louth is not alone in experiencing these issues. Demand has been driven by population increases, new household formations, inward migration, holiday lets and the proliferation of high-income industries such as tech. The dearer rents in Louth reflect the trend in the Dublin commuter counties, where rents rose 10.2% year-on-year, reflecting very low availability. Being faced with an acute shortage of rental homes, which shows little signs of abating, must serve as a wake-up call to the Government to work together to come up with innovative ideas for the provision of more homes.

The market is up, prices are up and the cost of materials is up. Many people are over the threshold for getting a council house but under the threshold for a mortgage. Bridging this gap, cost rental housing is available to applicants who do not have a net household income of more than €53,000 a year and are not in receipt of HAP, rent supplement or other social housing supports. However, it is so popular, the Minister for housing has admitted that it is oversubscribed, so supply remains an issue.

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 be made available for these much-needed housing projects. In fairness, last month Tuath Housing, in partnership with Louth County Council, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Housing Agency and the Housing Finance Agency, opened Louth's first 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 housing crisis requires a multi-faceted, 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 which will help address the current chronic housing shortage. Young people are under stress due to the uncertainty caused by a lack of housing options available to them, which will certainly impact on how they plan their lives. Some are considering emigrating. Overall, high prices to build or buy, relative to income, are pushing potential buyers out of the market and into rental accommodation, social housing, or emigration. The affordability gap is shocking, and we need to step in now. Housing affordability has also deteriorated for renters, noting that rents are now 40% higher. We need to ensure public money is not invested in the delivery of private rental-only developments that are unaffordable to rent and unavailable to buy. As well as seeking to address the immediate needs, we must also make financial provision so that younger generations are not left homeless or in poverty.

Deputy Peadar Tóibín

There are now 13,179 people in emergency homeless accommodation in Ireland. The number of children in emergency accommodation is 4,000. The total population of emergency accommodation is equivalent to the whole population of Midleton in Cork, a full mid-size town in Ireland. If we look at the number of children who are homeless in the State, it is equivalent to 171 classrooms of children. We should let this sink in. It is an incredible figure.

Given that Fine Gael has been in power for 13 years, the Government has been in power for four years and housing is a self-declared priority of this Government, it is incredible that in each of the key performance indicators when it comes to housing this Government's performance is getting worse.

Incredibly, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, released the homelessness figures on the same night as "The Late Late Toy Show". I am not sure if that was by accident or design. If it was by design, it was incredibly cynical to try, potentially, to hide the figures. If it was by accident, it shows in stark relief the difference and division that exists in this country between the haves and have-nots. A response to a freedom of information request I submitted this year showed that 20 people died in homelessness in Dublin in the first four months of this year, five of whom were under the age of 30, including one child. This means two thirds of the people who have died in homelessness this year were younger than me. That is a chilling statistic coming from Dublin City Council in respect of deaths among homeless people in Dublin. In the past five years, 400 people in homelessness have died in Dublin alone. These are human beings we are talking about who should have the same right to life and human rights as us. This is just the case in Dublin. If we extrapolate that figure to take in the whole State, we can estimate that 1,400 people have died in homelessness in Ireland in just the last five years.

It is incredible that the Government does not even record the number of people who die in homelessness outside the capital city. If the Government is not even researching this figure or collecting this information, it a very clear sign of where its priorities lie in terms of the housing crisis and the value it attaches to these people. Today, 1,400 mothers, fathers, sons and daughters are lying in a graveyard in large part due to the homelessness crisis in Ireland.

As I have said previously, the single most obvious trait of this Government is uselessness. It is completely unable to deliver on capital projects, with housing the perfect example. This is important, and I will give the Minister of State an example. Right now, across the country, 3,500 local authority homes are vacant. That is enough vacant homes to house everybody in homeless accommodation. It is an incredible figure. To show the Minister of State how useless the State in these terms, it takes eight months for the Government to turn around a local authority home so that it can be relet. Meanwhile, it takes three weeks for a private rental unit to be turned around to be relet. The fact that it is taking so long to turn around local authority homes is a failure in public administration, which is costing lives.

Again, it is worthwhile to do the maths on this. I went onto daft.ie before this debate and found there are 2,156 houses to rent in the entire State. This is another incredible figure. It is, however, lower than the number of empty local authority houses, even though the number of private homes for rent is double the number of local authority homes. The number of empty local authority homes is well above the number of empty private homes. This again is an indicator of a dysfunction that has enormous consequences for people's lives. The figures are incredible. If we use a filter on the search function in daft.ie to specify private rentals costing less than €2,500 monthly, only 1,150 such homes are shown to be available in the whole State. When we apply a filter of €1,500 monthly or less, we find there are only 623 homes available.

In my town of Navan, which has a population of 35,000, only eight homes are available to rent. If this is not the definition of a banjaxed housing system and a market that is completely broken, dysfunctional and not working, I cannot imagine what else is. The Government is spending more than €1 billion on the HAP and RAS, rental subsidies that do not provide one extra unit of accommodation to the State and have the effect of pushing up rents in the private market. The Government is not fulfilling its responsibility. It is not getting the easy stuff right in terms of vacant homes. It needs to change its policy on addressing the housing crisis.

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae

I heard Deputy Tóibín say it takes eight months for the local authority to turn around a house where he comes from. To make a point I have raised several times before, there are many houses, even in the Killarney electoral area, that have been void and vacant for four and five years. That is the gospel truth. I was made promises in this regard the year before last, last year and this year. Whatever is the matter, there are still several homes vacant and void, and no notice in the world is being taken of them. The neighbours are even complaining that vermin are going in and out of one of these houses and the briars are growing over the wall into their own place. This is not fair or right when people are looking for houses.

Another problem is that it is not possible to get contractors to turn these houses around. The Minister of State must accept that what the Department gives to turn around a house is €11,000, and if the house was done up in the last six years, it gives nothing. At the same time, if a house needs considerable work, that could cost up to €70,000 to go far enough to get the proper building energy rating, BER. The local authority has to foot this bill and it does not have the money. Maybe this is what is wrong. Some of these houses are going to take a lot of money to renovate. There is a problem that has not been sorted out and I do not think it is going to be sorted out given the way the system is.

On private renters, I have told the truth about the situation between Kenmare and Killarney. I gave a figure of about 55 houses that people will not rent out because the rental return they would get would be about €700 to €800 monthly. By the time they would pay the tax on that, they would only be left with only half that amount, maybe €350 or €400. That is one problem. It would not pay them to rent out these houses because they would have to pay for insurance, refurbishment or anything that might go wrong in the meantime.

There is a bigger issue, however. If people wanted to get a rented house back, it would be almost impossible to do so. The crowd the Government thinks is helping the situation, the RTB, is actually making the story way worse. I met a man from east Kerry in Killarney the other night. He told me he had finally got his house back and had sold it. He said he would have put up with everything but he would not put up with the RTB. That organisation must be looked at and scrutinised to see what it is doing. It is not being fair. It does not even help the people renting either, when it comes right down to it. It is not being fair and it is not helping the situation because it is not providing houses for people or providing a proper rent structure.

The system has been changed. We had the tenant purchase scheme previously but local authorities are now precluded from selling any house built since 2015 to the tenant. It is likewise with the voluntary housing associations. Tenants cannot purchase those houses. Back in time, when people got tenancy of a house from the county council, they always looked forward to purchasing the house down the road when they got enough money together and got their funding straightened out. People took a special pride in the house while they were renting it because it was in their minds that they would own it one day. They kept doing it up and kept it right. That incentive is not there anymore because the Government has changed the system. I do not approve of it. Many people are saying to me that they would prefer if they could own their house someday. The money these people would use to pay for the house and to buy it out would be going into the coffers again. Kerry County Council used to use that money to do up voids, which kept the cycle kicking over all the time. We did not have voids like that in the past.

I cannot understand why we should have them now. We should not because there are people looking for them. There is no homeless centre in Killarney. Yet, we are housing people from all over the world in hotels, guesthouses and what have you. Our own people who become homeless in Killarney have to go to Tralee, to the Whitehouse. That is the gospel truth. That is what is happening in Killarney. People are very upset in Killarney at the present time.

The income cap is an issue. Deputy Fitzpatrick described a situation whereby a person's income was not enough to obtain a mortgage but it was too high for them to be on the local authority housing list. A fellow came in to me the other evening. He is bringing home €880, outside of tax. What he was offered by a bank by way of a mortgage facility was €96,000. Where is he going? Any house, even those that are not right, costs €200,000. He has not a hope of buying a house. At the same time, he cannot go on the local authority housing list. He has a partner and a little girl and would like to do something about a house, but they are up against it. I hope the Minister of State can understand the concern I have for those people.

The HAP scheme is so intricate and involved that any landlord who would like to rent a house says, when asked whether they will take HAP, there is no way in the world they will. They will not have it. There are too many restrictions and things go on for two or three months. It does not help those looking to rent a house or the man who owns the house.

Planning is now almost impossible to obtain in Kerry. People, even family members and farmers, cannot access national roads. Many are still waiting and hoping that something will change and they can build a house and come out onto the roads where they have always come out. People are staying at their parents, but they want to have their own homes with their partners and children. Other areas are deemed to be under what is known as severe restricted urban pressure. A farmer will get permission. A young fellow living beside him who does not have land could buy a site but will not get planning permission for a house. He could be from the very same place. Even ten miles east of Killarney, that is the situation.

There are large tracts around every town for which people cannot get planning. They are asking us for nothing. They will pay for the house, whether that involves getting a mortgage, getting money or working for it, and put it together, but they cannot get planning in their own place. That is a very serious issue.

I did not see the programme on television last night, but what is happening is very wrong. We are paying An Taisce and other environmental groups. We are funding them and they can obtain the best barristers and legal advice to prevent ordinary people from getting planning. That is not fair. That is happening. I see the Minister shaking his head, but it is happening. They have the funds to keep objections going and have many things stopped. The taxpayer is funding them to do just that and to keep them going. It is very unfair. I ask the Minister to listen to the things I have said. I have made nothing up. It is the gospel truth of what is happening in Kerry. We have serious problems there which can be addressed if you go to the bother of doing it.

Deputy Joan Collins

I thank Sinn Féin and Deputy Ó Broin for bringing this motion to the floor of the House. It is important that we keep discussing and raising these issues with the Government. Renters are very much at the coalface of our housing crisis. The vast majority of those entering homelessness are renters. Focus Ireland found 70% of families becoming homeless came from the rental sector. The severe lack of rental properties, combined with little or no protections for renters against eviction, has created a situation where many often face insecure tenure with little to no hope of finding alternative accommodation if evicted.

Insecurity of tenure, a lack of other options, extortionate rents and poor housing conditions have left our rental market in a state of crisis. It is not fit-for-purpose, yet the Government has done little or nothing to protect renters. There have been no real interventions in terms of building public or cost-rental housing, strengthening security of tenure or tenants' rights or controlling skyrocketing rents. To add to this, the Government remove the no-fault eviction ban this year. Since then, thousands of people have faced notices to quit.

A recent report from the RTB showed that rents of new tenancies were an average of 18% higher than rents paid by existing tenants in the second quarter of 2023. This is just one example of how the Government has totally failed to control rising rents. Standardised average new rents rose by €3,816 since the Government took office. Is the average person making an extra €3,800 a year? Most people have seen their wages decline in real terms due to the inflation crisis, yet rents continue to go up.

The CSO found two thirds of HAP recipients are in employment. The reality for so many people in this country is that they cannot afford to keep up with the cost of rent. People cannot afford to rent or buy a house. There is no functioning public or social housing system to speak of. Even our emergency homeless services are overwhelmed and overstretched.

Threshold has stated there are 12,000 households in danger of homelessness. We know the vast majority will be renters, yet the Government is still refusing to reinstate the no-fault eviction ban. It chose to open the floodgates for notices to quit and evictions last April when it took away the only thing protecting many people from losing their homes. It is the norm across Europe for no-fault evictions to be banned as the bedrock of a stable rental market.

This Government, under the Housing for All policy, wants to grow our rental market as a percentage of overall housing stock. By failing to implement the legal norm for a country with a large rental market, it has built an unstable rental market and now wants to make it bigger. With regard to the growing rental market, I will refer to Part 5 tenancies, which will increase in a larger private rental market and the rise in Part 5 contributions to 20%. We have seen issues with segregation for Part 5 tenants again and again. In my constituency, there was a stark example of this in the Davitt complex, where council tenants were segregated into a single separate block with restricted access to shared amenities, including the car park, bike shed and communal areas. We have seen this problem repeated across Dublin. I raised the issue on Questions on Promised Legislation and was told the Government needed to learn lessons, but so far we have seen no lessons learned. We need Government intervention to make the pepper-potting of Part 5 tenancies mandatory in all private complexes and make sure they have access to communal facilities.

The Government has failed renters in the past and continues to fail them, with no sign of any real substantive change. There is a clear issue of not building enough public houses housing under successive Governments made up of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the Labour Party and the Green Party but, more than that, renters have been cut adrift in terms of legal protections against extortionate rents, evictions and housing conditions.

If we are to have a growing and modern rental sector, we need a modern system of tenants' rights to bring security of tenure laws up to EU norms and a ban on no-fault evictions. We also need a first right of refusal, that is, the ability to remain in a tenancy if a property is sold, just like business properties, tighter laws on landlords in respect of housing conditions, tighter rent controls, proper enforcement of housing conditions and rent controls. There is currently no enforcement at all to protect renters. We need an RTB with funding to give it teeth to protect renters, go after dodgy landlords and inspect properties on a regular basis.

Deputy Catherine Connolly

I thank Deputy Ó Broin for bringing forward the motion. One TD said earlier that they could not recall the last time a Minister or Minister of State sat through a full debate. I cannot recall when a member of the Government last came to the House and used Government time to deal with the housing crisis, which would be very helpful in the context of it telling us how it is tackling the housing crisis. I do not know how many times the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, has sat opposite me and I have been saying practically the same thing over and over.

Many reports have been published but I like those of the Simon Community, because the one I have to hand was its 31st snapshot in time that examined a period of three days. I declare an interest in that many years ago, I worked with the organisation as a volunteer. It has produced 31 reports that give us a snapshot of the Minister of State's Government policy. Its latest one tells us there has been "a further decrease in the number of properties available to rent in the private rental market and available through HAP since June 2023." The charity has been tracking this every quarter. It goes on to state:

The report comes in the context of a private rental market affected by a contraction in supply, increase in rental prices, and an overall lack of affordability.

In Galway city, about which I am constantly saying the crisis there is equal to, if not worse than, that in Dublin city, an average of seven properties were available to rent on each of the three days surveyed. The report states:

During the study, no properties were found to be affordable under standard HAP rates. [This is in the Galway city suburbs.]

There was only 1 one-bedroom property available, with rent of €934.

Rents ranged between €1,325 and €2,600 for two-bedroom properties.

That is an obscenity. Does the Minister of State not agree? Rent of €2,600 for a two-bedroom property in the Galway city suburbs is an obscenity. Three-bedroom properties ranged up to €2,200. These are just obscene figures.

Turning to Galway city centre, 13 properties were available to rent. There was one affordable property under the standard HAP rate for any of the four households examined. No properties under the discretionary HAP rate were available. Rents ranged from €1,100 to €1,900 for a one-bedroom property. Can you imagine that? They ranged from €2,040 to €3,000 for a two-bedroom property, and up to €3,000 for a three-bedroom property.

What does the Government say every time we stand up here and use our own time or that of the bigger Opposition party, Sinn Féin, to bring this home to the Government and show how it has commodified the housing market? It has sold it completely to the market and it has utterly failed, so we have brought in scheme after scheme, like a jigsaw with no overall picture for where we are going as a society in terms of ensuring that the most basic unit in a democracy is that we have security of tenure and shelter.

In Galway city, the latest headlines regarding the Land Development Agency suggest it is about to do a deal with the port, Galway Harbour Company, which owns the land in trust for the people of Galway. It is public land, and it is doing a deal with the Land Development Agency. The headline claimed it was going to build “premium” housing on the 6 acres in question. The harbour company, which owns these 6 acres of public land in trust, is doing a deal with the Land Development Agency to keep prices high because that port, if it does eventually get permission, will have to be self-financing. It is going to sell the land at a high value in order that it can build premium housing in a city where people are waiting up to 17, 18 and 19 years to get off the waiting list.

In respect of the absence of a master plan for Galway, I have pointed this out so often I despair. Ceannt Station, with 14 acres in the middle of town, is doing its own thing. The docks, likewise, are doing their own thing, as are Sandford Road and Headford Road. There is no city architect and there is an absence of planners in the city and county. Tomorrow, we are going to talk about planning legislation and blame the objector, labelling the person who is doing his or her best to bring concerns to our attention. We demonise and other them and put them out, and in the meantime, we are back to developer-led development. What is horrible about that is that we have twisted language completely. Up to recently, we were able to say developer-led development. With the planning Bill, we are now being told that that is all changed and it will be public participation while, at the same time, we are utterly reducing public participation. I have stood here and agreed with the Green Party on issues and I will continue to do so, but it is shocking what it is doing with the planning legislation.

The Galway housing task force was set up in 2019 because the system had failed to build houses in Galway since the financial crisis. Not a single public house was built from 2009 to 2020 and we wonder why there is a crisis. We set up a task force and it has not even reported, except for providing one-page reports annually, with no comprehensive report of an analysis of the housing crisis in Galway and solutions to go with it.

Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne

I welcome the opportunity to speak about renters' rights and acknowledge that Shannon LEA is only now the second area in my constituency, Clare, to become a rent pressure zone, following Ennis LEA in just August of this year. Some, including those in the Government, might say better late than never, but the significant delay for Clare has had detrimental effects for those renters who have fallen victim to highly escalated levels of rent and, in some of the cases I have seen, substandard properties in return. The most recent daft.ie report tells us rents in Clare increased by 13.9% between October last year and this year, and according to Clare FM, this is the first time that average rents in Clare have surpassed €1,300 a month, another record broken for the Government. A two-bedroom apartment will now set you back at least €1,030, which is a whopping increase of 15.3% in just one year. It is out of control.

What do you get for that €1,030? Not security of tenure or a Government scheme to protect your deposit; in fact, I often hear from people who did not get their deposit back and have had to get loans to move into a new tenancy, with even higher rents than in existing tenancies. The lack of available properties was a crisis and is now a colossal gap leaving many locked into emergency accommodation for long periods, with others sitting in absolute fear because they do not know what is to become of them and their families. As the Minister of State will know, nine out of ten tenancy terminations are landlord led, while seven out of ten are no-fault evictions. In the third quarter of this year, 60 notices to quit were issued in Clare.

Drastic steps need to be taken to help people out of drastic circumstances. Bringing forward legislation that will ban no-fault evictions outright for at least a period of 12 months would be significant. Shelter is a human right on which many other human rights hinge and, as we know, you cannot meaningfully contribute and partake in society without it. If we fail to provide for this fundamental right, we will fail the people who put us here.

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

I might begin by addressing a number of the points raised by Deputies. I thank all the Deputies for their contributions. If it is okay, I will revert to Deputy Bacik on the issue of Housing Agency valuations and market values.

Deputy O'Callaghan raised points about the RTB and the dispute resolution in respect of deposits. Legislation to improve the efficiency of the RTB, along with additional staffing, is being brought forward. The RTB provides a free mediation service. Moreover, there is going to be a statement of strategy from the RTB. All these measures are being brought in to try to improve its efficiency and interaction with renters. The board is also compiling a report on deposit retention, in line with an action in Housing for All.

A number of Deputies raised issues relating to the voids programme, something the Government and the Department of housing have accelerated considerably. Given the standards of refit now, it takes considerable additional time to get social housing up to the standard we now require in the context of energy performance and so on.

Many issues relating to rent increases in various parts of the country were raised. Daft.ie was mentioned, but properties are not always advertised on daft.ie and the asking price has at times proven to be a lot higher than the actual rents when the properties are registered with the RTB.

It is important to know that as well.

Deputy Connolly raised a point regarding public participation in respect of the planning Bill generally, which is something that is a cornerstone of our planning system. Even local authority staff are doing additional training in that regard in order to move out of that linear type of public consultation into a much more inclusive and immersive type of participation at development plan level, and at all levels. That is to be welcomed also.

I again thank all the Deputies for their contribution to the debate. As the issue was raised, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, had to leave because he had other engagements this evening. That is just the nature of the work, unfortunately. That is why I am here to cover. A point was made regarding the publication of the homeless figures on the same day as "The Late Late Toy Show". It certainly was not deliberate or cynical at all. That was the day the figures were due to be published.

I reassure Deputies that every single decision the Government makes is fully and carefully considered. No one in the Government underestimates the scale of the housing challenge, which is considerable. We must ensure that we enhance housing supply as much as possible, including rental accommodation. A three-year rent freeze would have a significant impact on deterring medium and longer term supply of rental accommodation, with a knock-on negative impact on rent levels. It would act as a disincentive to landlords who are considering entering the rental market and as a spur for existing landlords to leave. We need a supply of homes of all types and tenures, in every place, and a wide-reaching plan to reform practically every aspect of our housing system. Housing for All is that plan and, despite the challenges we face, we see the plan is starting to bear fruit.

In addition, the correct course of action has been focusing on the additional measures announced last March to increase the supply of homes. Taken together, these measures accelerate supply, especially the supply of affordable rental properties, while addressing vacancy and encouraging more efficient use of existing building stock for housing purposes. The Government's Housing for All plan is having a real impact on increasing housing supply, with more homes now being built and bought than in a generation. Last year, we saw the greatest number of homes delivered since 2008, with new developments coming on stream. The most effective way to reduce and stabilise rents in the medium to long term is to increase supply and accelerate delivery of housing for the private and social rental sectors.

Ensuring the successful implementation of Housing for All is a key priority for the Government. This is underpinned by the unprecedented level of Exchequer investment in the housing budget for 2024. The coming year will see more than €5 billion of capital investment in housing, which is a record figure. We will continue to increase housing stock in the country while progressing major reforms in our housing system. Latest figures for housing completions and building commencements indicate strong construction activity and increased housing supply, which is critical to alleviating pressure. In the first nine months of this year, 26,547 homes have been commenced, which is a 16.6% increase on the same period last year.

Cost rental was introduced by the Government, which is a new form of housing tenure - the Vienna model was mentioned by some - via the Affordable Housing Act 2021. An additional 1,400 cost-rental units have been approved for funding of more than €250 million across nine local authority areas. The target is 18,000 homes by 2030. The new viability measure aims to activate extant planning permissions, particularly in the build-to-rent sector, and to make the resulting supply of homes more affordable. A new secure tenancy affordable rental, STAR, investment scheme aims to invest in the delivery of 4,000 plus cost-rental homes by 2027. The scheme will increase the supply of safe, affordable, cost-rental homes and expand the availability of the cost-rental model in high-demand areas throughout Ireland, which is crucial to making the rental market work for everybody.

The cost-rental eligibility thresholds have increased since 1 August 2023. These thresholds are now set at a net household income of €66,000 in Dublin and €59,000 in the rest of the country. There have been changes to the cost rental equity loan, CREL, to ensure that AHBs can continue to deliver at scale. The new cost-rental tenant in situ scheme is now also being rolled out. That scheme is available if the tenant household is not able to purchase the property from the landlord, is at risk of homelessness, and is not eligible for or currently in receipt of social housing supports.

We have continued our focus on bringing vacant and derelict homes back into use. Significant enhancements have been made to the vacant properties refurbishment grant with close to 4,700 applications received to date. The local authority home loan will be extended next year to allow for the purchase and renovation of derelict homes. Budget 2024 has also increased the vacant homes tax. We have responded to the financial viability challenges in the delivery of homes through funds such as Croí Cónaithe, under which the contracts have now been signed to deliver apartments for sale to owner-occupiers.

Housing for All commits to an annual update. The second annual update of the Housing for All action plan was published on 14 November. It identifies 30 priority actions and a further 84 supporting actions focused on activating and accelerating the delivery of housing. The updated action plan places a major emphasis for the remainder of 2023 and all of 2024 on measures to improve the viability of housing construction, including through the adoption of modern methods of construction and enhancing construction sector capacity.

The year ahead will see progress on changes to the planning system. A major Planning and Development Bill was published on 21 November. The current Planning and Development Act, which has operated since 2000, has undergone a complete fitness check to identify reforms to deliver key infrastructure in housing, transport and renewable energy. We have also initiated the process of updating the national planning framework, which will be accompanied by updated housing targets, taking into account up-to-date population numbers.

On 7 March 2023, the Government announced a range of mitigation measures to deal with a phased lifting of the winter eviction ban over a period from 31 March to 18 June 2023. One of the measures was to develop a legislative first right of refusal proposal, which would require landlords selling a property to first offer it for purchase to the tenant. Detailed and complex work has been ongoing in conjunction with the Office of the Attorney General to progress the implementation of the Government's decision. The Government is conscious at all times in bringing forward legislation such as this of the need to avoid unintended consequences insofar as possible. For example, it is not intended to unnecessarily impede or complicate the sale process for rental accommodation nor cause delays to the conveyancing process. The Government is also required to ensure, when formulating legislation, that it can withstand legal challenge. I apologise, a Cheann Comhairle, for coming out with a cold.

An Ceann Comhairle

I know how you are feeling.

Deputy Malcolm Noonan

These matters are being considered in detail by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and the Office of the Attorney General. The general scheme of the residential tenancies (right to purchase) Bill was approved by the Government on 24 October as the basis for priority legal drafting. That drafting is under way with the aim of publication during the Oireachtas session.

We are exploring every opportunity to add supply to the rental sector and the overall housing system. My Department is finalising a comprehensive review of the private rental sector to take account of the significant regulatory changes over the past several years. The review aims to ensure that our housing system provides an efficient, affordable, safe and secure framework for both landlords and tenants. 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 comprehensive and far-reaching. Housing delivery envisaged under Housing for All is focused through short-term, medium-term and long-term actions. The Government is working to deliver on its comprehensive and detailed plan of action. Delivering for people is our goal on the housing front and on all fronts. We will continue to listen to feedback, seek improvements, review the private rental sector, and give voice to all interested parties. In delivering housing, affordability and quality will remain core to everything we do.

Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú

The Minister of State is in an invidious position in having to defend the indefensible when the Minister is not about when this dirty deed needs to be done. Let us be absolutely clear. We all agree that we need to deliver on affordable, cost-rental and council housing. However, the fact is that at this point in time we are dealing with a disgrace of a rental market that is in an abysmal condition. Unless we accept that, we are going nowhere. I accept the Minister of State is trying to deal with some of the individual issues, including deposit retention, which have been put to him. As commendable as that is, we need to accept that we are dealing with a basket case of a situation that needs to be addressed.

In County Louth, for example, the average rent for new tenancies is €1,295. That is a 14.7% year-on-year increase. The average rent for existing tenancies is €1,131, which is an increase of 4.1%. Let us consider the motion. Standardised average new rents in Dublin have increased by €4,716, and by €3,816 State-wide since the Government was formed. The RTB report showed new rent increases of 11.6%, which is the highest annual increase since RTB records started in 2007. I am not entirely sure where we are going. I could probably ream out a whole pile more of statistics. It is all well and good giving out about daft.ie but if you are in Dundalk, or anywhere else at this point, that is what you are looking at.

We heard the figures for Louth. There are 13 properties available in Dundalk, and 18 in Dundalk and the surrounding areas. It costs €2,500 per month for one four-bedroom house. Another four-bedroom house is also €2,500 a month. I do not have the time to go through the list. Let us just say the rents are considerably more than they were. None of it is working and none of it will work until we get a three-year stall on rent increases and until we put money back properly into people's pockets.

Deputy Claire Kerrane

It is so important when we talk about big rents that we remind ourselves that it is not just in urban centres and big towns, the rental crisis is right across every rural constituency, including my own of Roscommon-Galway. The increases are consistent and they are continuing to rise month on month. Although it comes as no surprise, the biggest disappointment here this evening is that both the Minister and the Minister of State said nothing to people who are renting today whose rent is increasing and who cannot afford it. Talking about supply and different schemes does not solve their problem. Rents are continuing to rise and the Government is sitting back and doing nothing.

Deputy Malcolm Noonan

That is not true.

Deputy Claire Kerrane

The RTB report showed an increase of 9.5% in the last year for existing tenancies in County Roscommon, and 8.8% for new tenancies. In County Galway the increase for new tenancies is 13.5% and 4.3% for existing tenancies. As many colleagues have said, there is nowhere to rent. The worst thing is that when someone comes to us who has an eviction notice that there is literally nowhere for them to go. There are zero properties to rent in Ballinasloe, zero in Castlerea, one in Ballaghadereen, two in Strokestown, and one in Roscommon town.

The Minister's response earlier this evening will do absolutely nothing. Talk about cold comfort. It is as if he spent most of his time working out how many pages and how many points we had written down. Renters could not care less about that. What they care about is a ban on rent increases for three years that would give them security and certainty - for their children, for older people renting and for people renting who have additional needs - as they are under huge pressure. The Government has no message for them this evening.

Deputy Maurice Quinlivan

The report of the Residential Tenancies Board shows the annual increase in rents since the RTB started keeping records in 2007. With this Government in power, records get broken regularly but none of them are positive. If it is not the highest number of people in emergency accommodation, it is the highest number of homeless children, the highest number of people being treated on trolleys in hospitals, especially my local hospital, University Hospital Limerick, or the highest rent increase ever recorded by the RTB.

Those on the Government benches sit there with straight faces and tell us that they are doing a good job. If they come to my constituency office or the constituency offices of the three other TDs from Limerick they will hear the same stories. I sometimes wonder if they live in a parallel universe where they do not understand what is actually going on.

Today there were 13 properties available in Limerick on daft.ie. There is a one-bedroom apartment in Perry Square for €1,800 a month. There is a one-bedroom apartment in Barrington Street for €2,000 a month. I am not sure who is supposed to be able to afford those. There is a two-bedroom apartment for €2,100. They were the cheapest properties available today.

There are things we can do and the Minister of State has failed to do them. He could and should introduce a ban on rent increases for existing and new tenancies. He could and should put a full month's rent back into every private renter's pocket. There is an opportunity to stand up for renters by supporting our motion and acting on the calls outlined in it. The Minister of State could choose to stand with renters but I suspect that once more he will do nothing to aid them.

Rent incomes are at an all-time high. Homelessness has remained steadily high. I understand for instance there is no place for people to go in Limerick tonight. I have said this in the Dáil before.

Housing targets for social and affordable homes have been missed three years in a row. Limerick's annual rent increase at 11.2% is a staggering figure. How are renters expected to pay their month and try to save for a mortgage so that they might own their own home one day. For most, it is an ambition that cannot be achieved.

As I said on a number of occasions, we have a number of challenges coming down the road. We have people approaching their 60s who have been renting privately for many years. What are they going to do when they retire? They will not be able to afford the rent unless we sort something out. As we said when the Government ended the no-fault eviction ban, where are those people supposed to go, because in Limerick there is nowhere for them to go.

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

Is the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, not embarrassed? He comes in here at the end of every debate and he reads a script, the majority of which I do not believe he believes to be true. At some point, he must be deeply embarrassed personally with what he is doing, as well as with what the Government is doing.

Deputy Doherty asked the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, before he ran out of the Chamber earlier - how high do rents have to go? That is the question. How high is the Minister of State, his line Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the parties in government going to allow rents to rise? There was nothing in any speech today – not the Minister of State's or the line Minister's - that explained what they are going to do to bring those rents down. It is simply not true that supply in and of itself will reduce costs, unless the supply is the right kind of supply, delivered by the right agency and at the right price.

Yes, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, was correct. By the end of this year while the Government has been in office the private sector has delivered more than 100,000 new homes. That is half of what is needed. What the Minister forgot to say during all of that time is that the Government's own targets for social and affordable housing were missed year on year, as they will be this year. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, told us that €5 billion is available for public housing next year. There was €4 billion available last year and the Government underspent by €1 billion. It is going to underspend by at least another €1 billion this year. Making big promises makes no sense if the Government does not deliver those homes.

Let us look at the actual record. How many cost-rental homes were delivered in 2021? Does the Minister of State know? It was 65. How many cost-rental homes were delivered in 2022? Does the Minister of State know the figures? It was 684. Half way through this year only 22 cost-rental homes have been delivered. It is not only that the Government is not delivering them, the cost of the rents are rising. They are now pushing up to €1,500 a month and above in the suburbs and outside of Dublin. How many purchases have taken place so far this year of cost-rental homes and tenant in situ? Two. How many referrals from local authorities? Sixty eight. Is the Minister of State not embarrassed by these figures? These are the reasons rents are increasing so rapidly. I just do not understand how, with the highest level of rents in the modern history of the State, and rising; with the highest house prices in the history of the State, and rising; and with the most scandalous levels of homelessness, including child homelessness and pensioner homelessness since records began, the Minister of State can come in here and tell us that things are working. That is not true.

I am sure there are some signs of increased housing activity, commencements and planning permissions, but nowhere close to what is required. They only seem like progress because the Government is coming from such a low base. With each one of these debates, my ability to take the Minister of State's interventions in any way seriously is greatly diminished. Having listened to him today I am more convinced than ever that the longer the Minister of State, his party and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are in government the worse the housing crisis is going to get. That is why we need an election, a change of Government, a change of Minister, a change of housing plan, and until that happens we will continue to table motions like we did today. I commend the motion to the House.

Amendment put.

An Ceann Comhairle

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