Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Home repossessions are not in anyone's interests. The Bill before us makes easier the repossession of homes by banks in the case of mortgage arrears. Instead of protecting people from being thrown onto the streets, the Government has worked diligently and efficiently to produce legislation that will increase the stress and fear already experienced by families struggling to keep their heads above water. The Bill will create more worry for people who lie awake at night fearing the day the debts they accrued to provide a roof over the heads of their families catch up with them.

I propose to address an issue that many Deputies do not consider when speaking of repossessions. I have raised this issue repeatedly in the House but have received little in the way of a concrete response on what is being done to tackle the problem. I fear this Bill will open the door to a much greater threat. The group I speak of are tenants in homes owned by landlords who are in arrears on their mortgages. Prices in the rental market have increased significantly in recent years, with demand causing Dublin rents to increase by 6% in the past two years. The number of available homes has decreased fourfold since 2009 and a large number of people are living in rented properties. The precarious nature of the ownership of many of these homes is clear from the most basic figures on mortgage arrears. Some 29% of the 150,000 buy-to-let mortgages are in arrears and of these, 17% have been in arrears for 90 days or more. This means a staggering 26,770 rental properties are at serious risk of default. What will happen to the tenants of these properties? Thankfully, the individuals and families in question do not face the problem of crippling debt experienced by many mortgage holders. However, they face a serious problem that must be addressed.

The level of housing need has never been greater or more severe in the history of the State. This Bill, which, if the Government was being honest, would be named the "Home Repossession Bill", is going to put more families at risk of being in severe need of housing. In recent weeks and months I have dealt with many families whose rented homes are under threat. Despite the fact that they are paying rent - in many instances the amount they pay is greater than what they would be obliged to furnish in mortgage repayments - they now face eviction. Landlords are receiving people's rent but are not paying their own mortgages or else they are only paying them in part. The banks do not want these homes to remain in their ownership. They do not want to be landlords or to honour the agreements which tenants signed with their own landlords and which they did nothing to break. Banks want to make a quick buck by selling these properties and moving on. It is likely that this is going to happen on a large scale. Where will we find ourselves at that point? If nearly 50,000 buy-to-let mortgages are in arrears, then these problems will only become worse and their impact cannot be underestimated. To underestimate them would be to play with the lives of many people. The Government has already done too much of that.

One group of tenants is in particular danger - those who are in receipt of rent supplement or on the rent allowance scheme. The latter scheme, which involves the use of private housing to deal with the State's failure and unwillingness to provide a sufficient number of publicly-owned homes, has been shown to be unreliable and unsuitable in the context of meeting the huge housing need that exists throughout the State. Families who are in receipt of rent supplement and on the rent allowance scheme are, by definition, those in the low-income bracket. Those in receipt of rent supplement are prevented from working. This perpetuated the existence of a poverty trap even in boom times. People who are in receipt of rent supplement are in no position to find new accommodation, particularly with the advent of spiralling rents and the imposition of deposits, not to mention the terrible condition of much of the housing on offer at the lower end of the scale. Recent Dublin City Council inspections revealed that 90% of the flats visited in the city fall below even the most basic of standards.

The Bill before the House and the cuts which have already been introduced will force many families into housing which is not suitable for human habitation. That is the result of Fine Gael and Labour policy. People on the rent allowance scheme were, by virtue of the contracts they signed, guaranteed that they would not be obliged to go without homes. They lived up to their side of the bargain but the State has been found wanting in respect of its responsibilities. Local authorities do not want people to be without homes but what can they do? They are not allowed to build any houses and cuts of over €1 billion have been made to the housing budget since 2008. We must address these problems and we cannot allow the potential catastrophe to which they might give rise to become a reality for the thousands of people who are at risk. I call on the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Administration of which he is a member to take the initiative and negotiate a binding code of conduct with lending institutions in order to ensure that families will not be thrown out on the street as a result of repossessions. I also call on the Minister to work with these families which, in many instances, the State has already failed.

The crisis in housing is becoming worse. At my constituency office each day I meet people who are in serious trouble and who cannot even obtain rent supplement. Landlords are saying that they do not want to be paid by means of that supplement. That matter must be addressed. Landlords cannot be allowed to refuse money. Why are they refusing to accept the rent supplement? What is happening is outrageous. We need to address this issue.

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