Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome very much the submission from Threshold. I am deeply concerned about what is happening to people who have been put out of rented accommodation. Approximately 80 families per week are being put out on the road. It is an appalling disgrace that this very day, homeless children are being placed in adult hostels and obliged to sleep on bunk beds. That is an appalling vista. It is clear that urgent and immediate action is required. We need to communicate with the Minister as a matter of urgency to encourage him to take whatever steps are necessary and to deal with the concerns of the different organisations that are commenting on this absolute scandal. One step would be to commandeer hotel rooms or any available space. It is unacceptable to have children sleeping, as I understand it, in staff rooms so that they are safer than in other rooms. That is absolutely appalling. As a committee, we must deal with this issue and make our recommendations.

Why are there 80 families going out onto the roads each week? It is because landlords can say the law allows them to act in a particular way. If a landlord is going to sell accommodation he or she owns, he or she will give his or her tenants three months to get out. I accept that one of the final acts of the then Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Kelly, was to place an obligation on landlords to sign a statutory declaration stating that it is the intent to sell properties they own. I think we need emergency legislation to not allow that to happen in future and that for a period of, say, a year or whatever, people could not be put out of their accommodation if they are paying their rent. If they are not paying their rent, then the matter could go to arbitration. We cannot accept that families are being put out on the streets of our cities and towns by callous and cowardly landlords who are abusing their position. They are exploiting the market and seeking people who will pay more. As a result, they are creating appalling conditions for families. I feel strongly about this.

I agree with my colleague, Deputy Durkan, that the question of affordable housing is a myth. The scandal of councils refusing to accept houses from NAMA in this city is another disgrace. Thousands of houses have been offered to county councils, up and the country, which they have not taken. In my view, they are failing in their statutory duty of care to the prospective tenants. We should also insist - I know we have been pushing an open door in this regard - that rapid build housing, which some of us have seen in Ballymun, be used as an immediate solution. Such housing could meet the needs of thousands of families in a short period. That is what we have to do. Speaking on my own behalf, I strongly recommend that the chairman be delegated to meet the Minister, as a matter of urgency, on those two issues today because we cannot allow this situation to continue.