Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Social Democrats will certainly support this Bill proceeding to Committee Stage. The idea of Committee Stage is for Bills like this to be teased out and scrutinised. It is disappointing that while the Government criticises the Opposition for not tabling proposals, when the Opposition brings forward proposals and Bills such as this, the Government does not even want them to be discussed and scrutinised on Committee Stage.

Why, therefore, is it blocking discussion and detailed scrutiny of proposals that are brought forward? It is very important that we have measures to improve conditions for renters and address housing affordability. As part of that, as the Social Democrats have put forward, there is no question that we need at least 20,000 affordable-purchase, cost-rental and social homes each year. This year, the Government had a target of 4,000 affordable and cost-rental homes but it did not even meet delivery of half of that. This is in the context of us having some of the highest rents in Europe and some of the lowest levels of protections for renters. Rents have increased. They have almost doubled over the past decade. We have had the third highest rate of rent increase in the EU since 2010, while at the very same time, according to the census, 35,000 rental homes were lying empty on census night.

The Government stated it has a timely and effective response to the rental crisis. Is it for real? What sort of timely response? How on earth is it effective? Is it absolutely unaware of what is going on in this country? I will draw attention to a few newspaper headlines relating to the rental crisis published over the past few weeks. A surgeon in Galway, a renter, talked of the terror of being lunged at by his landlord with a circular saw. A renter has collected 1,000 l of water from 30 rented households over the past four to five months to highlight the severe problem of damp faced by many renters. Renters in Tathony House on Rathmines Road are being evicted en masse. A woman who has worked 30 years full time in retail is at risk of homelessness for the second time. A renter with two children who is being evicted was asked by Dublin City Council whether she had a car, suggesting this could be somewhere for her and her children to sleep. She had to fight again and again with Dublin City Council to get emergency accommodation. A family facing eviction next month told of the nightmare of trying to find a new home. Another renter said they were facing eviction in May and would not be able to teach. This is a teacher who is 31-years-old on a €52,000 a year income but cannot afford rent. Another renter, after three no-fault eviction notices and eight moves in ten years, said they feel their current house will never feel like home. How can they feel any security in that? Another renter said that trying to find a home is a full-time job. This is someone who is a researcher and has had to leave their rented house. We have heard from a Dublin mum of three facing eviction next month who was told to go to a Garda station. We have been told of a Wicklow family facing eviction who said they are considering living out of a storage unit due to the housing crisis. We have heard from a middle-aged renter who said they cannot go back to their childhood bedroom and is couch surfing following eviction from their home of 15 years. That is not to mention the struggles of people with disabilities. When they are evicted, not only do they lose their home but all the supports for which they fought for years through the system to get into places. When they lose their home and have to move out of that geographical area, they lose all the supports that go with that as well as their home.

At the same time as seeing those headlines and news articles, at the weekend we heard of an owner of 43 homes who has left them empty for the past two years to avoid rent caps. Of course, that has been allowed for because the Government has not had an effective tax on vacancy and due to the way it has constructed the rent pressure zone legislation to allow for those loopholes, which incentivise some owners to leave rental properties empty for two years. At the same time as we hear of these real-life experiences of renters, we hear of billions of euro in surplus the Government is sitting on that it will not spend. This is obscene. Renters are being asked whether they have a car; a renter with two young children was asked that. She did not, but the implication, when she asked for emergency accommodation, was why she was asking for such accommodation if she had a car. This was when she was being evicted and becoming homeless. That is what this Government is standing over. Other renters are being told to go to Garda stations or are having to plan to live out of storage units, while this Government is sitting on billions.

What is the Government's big idea for the €1 billion unspent on housing? It is to find ways it can hand this money, which was meant to be spent building more affordable and cost-rental social homes, over to developers. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, who did not even bother to turn up for this debate, showing his contempt for proposals put forward by the Opposition, confirmed yesterday at the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage that no measures at all are being put in place to ensure the reduction in those development levies that are being waived for developers will be handed over to people trying to buy a home. None whatsoever. Why is that? Are there not enough different Government schemes to support developers? We have seen previously that developers promised reductions in apartment standards would lead to more affordability. What happened? Did we get more affordable apartments? We got the exact opposite. The price of apartments went up to more unaffordable levels. We should contrast this with what the Spanish Government is doing, where up to 50,000 vacant homes are being made available at affordable rents, through a government initiative, to younger people who are still living with their parents.

One of the effects of Government inaction on the rental crisis is to ensure that more and more people in their 20s, 30s and into their 40s, and we are talking about hundreds of thousands of such people, are still living in their parents' homes and childhood bedrooms. This has profound effects on their mental health, wellbeing, family formation and independence. It is leading to a situation where, increasingly, people who want to stay in Ireland, have good jobs here and have skills we need in healthcare and other areas, are saying the only way they can find somewhere affordable to live, potentially, is to emigrate. That is something that is heartbreaking for them and their families but it also costs us something as a country that we cannot afford.

I commend People Before Profit on bringing this Bill forward. I certainly support it going to Committee Stage for further scrutiny.

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