Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The saga that is RTÉ should not distract us from the ongoing housing crisis and housing disaster. Last Friday, homelessness figures set another new and shameful record for the Government. There are now 13,531 people homeless, including more than 4,000 children - a 17% increase in one year - which is truly shocking. This is a time when, as Lorcan Sirr writes, there are more than 18,000 empty homes available for short-term letting on Airbnb compared to only 2,000 that are available for longer term renting on daft.ie. Meanwhile, the European Commission sits on legislation that would finally bring in some proper regulation.

It has been more than five years since the Labour Party first proposed legislation to regulate short-term lets. I raised this question with the Tánaiste last week but got no satisfactory answer. There seems to be a view from the Government that we must just wait. Tell that to the thousands of people who are in homelessness or who are looking for a home. Other cities across Europe have already acted, so why can we not do so? What are young people going to think when they hear that average house prices have now exceeded the Celtic tiger high and that the average rent in Dublin is more than €2,000 per month? What are they to think when they hear that more than 19,000 eviction notices were issued last year, mostly because the landlord intended to sell? Our rental system is truly a wild west.

I raised this issue with the Tánaiste last week as well, but his response to me then amounted to a commentary on what is going on in the rental sector and not a statement of intent from the Government about what it is doing to address this. The only change the Tánaiste could point to was an extension of the notice periods landlords are obliged to give. In truth, it seems the Government has given up on trying to protect renters. It seems that unscrupulous landlords, like Marc Godart, can do what they like because the authorities will always be playing catch-up.

The Rental Tenancies Board, RTB, and indeed local authorities simply do not have the enforcement powers they need to hold people to account. Renters live in fear of eviction. Recently, in the Irish Examiner, Michael Byrne said that nobody renting privately in Ireland now has a secure home. That is the truth, because a notice of termination may come through the door on any day. We need to see stronger rights and protections for renters. In the Labour Party, we proposed this two years ago in a Bill on renters’ rights.

Is it the Government’s position that it has no further plans to improve the rights of tenants? Increasing supply is clearly at the core of the housing crisis. For months, I have been asking the Government when it is going to increase its housing targets. They are too low and Ireland needs to build more: at least 50,000 homes per year in order to meet the chronic situation of under supply and our growing population.

I will raise this issue with the Tánaiste every week between now and the local elections. What is he doing to tackle the housing crisis? When is he going to regulate short-term lets? What is he going to do now to improve the rights of renters and give people the security they need in their homes?

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