Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I raise the availability of land for the provision of housing. Over a quarter of voters told the exit poll during the general election in February that their key concern when casting their ballot was housing. We are all acutely aware of the hardship being experienced by families throughout the country due to the chronic shortage of housing. We all agree what a scandal it is to have 10,000 men, women and children living in hotels, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. We talk about the need for people to have outdoor space to exercise, and the importance of being able to meet at a social distance, for mental health. Young people want to leave the rental trap and own their own home. They want to live and work in the areas where they are from and not to leave and move closer to larger cities.

While everybody agrees with these key points, we have a major issue when it comes to residential land being dezoned, with the proposed new development plans throughout this country. Galway City Council hopes to purchase lands for social and affordable housing worth €15 million. Meanwhile, in Meath and other parts of the country, councils are recommending that large amounts of serviced land be dezoned from residential back to agricultural land for no clear reason. There is no clear policy from the Government on its plans regarding the availability of housing. This means the decisions made in that regard at local level all around the country totally lack cohesion. Project Ireland 2040, which is supported by the Planning Regulator, puts a full stop on rural development. This is a massive error when we can see the clear benefits of rural living, as demonstrated by statistics on clusters throughout the pandemic.

The dezoning of land is not the only problem we face at the moment. Covid-19 has created many urgent challenges within this sector. The Minister recently extended the ban on evictions until 1 August but what will happen then? If people cannot pay the deferred rents that have been racked up in recent months, an eviction crisis looms. However, if landlords are asked to swallow some of the loss, many of them may choose or be forced to leave the rental market causing absolute chaos within the already strained market. The Government's actions at this moment fly in the face of all the promises we have been given on building houses, the provision of homes and the creation of a country where people do not live in fear of becoming homeless due to the lack of quality housing in their area.