Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:acknowledges:

— there exists a current housing and homelessness emergency in the country that must be addressed as a matter of urgency;

— current housing resources and supports are at breaking point;

— the current situation is forcing many people on rent assistance, which is set below the market rent level, to engage in illegal ‘top-up’ practices in order to sustain their housing situation;

— that there is a shortage of private rented accommodation across the country and where accommodation does exist it is increasingly unaffordable; and

— the lack of alternative housing options available; andcalls on the Government to:— accept and recognise the current housing issue as a crisis;

— develop a National Housing Strategy to address the identified need for in excess of 80,000 new housing units within the next five years, as detailed in the recent Housing Agency Report entitled ‘Housing Supply Requirements in Ireland’s Urban Settlements 2014 - 2018’;

— recommence construction, via local authorities and housing associations, to reduce the amount of time that people are forced to spend on social housing waiting lists by providing a minimum of 10,000 units per annum;

— address the large number of voids that have been sitting unoccupied, sometimes for years, and to provide for those voids to be renovated and occupied;

— take urgent action regarding spiralling rents and the unaffordability of private rented accommodation;

— introduce a new, broad, rental option to make renting a more attractive option;

— alter the remit of the Private Residential Tenancies Board to protect tenants from eviction during an appeals process;

— immediately move to disallow the practice of landlords refusing tenancy to rent allowance recipients;

— address the impediments experienced by housing associations in leveraging European funding;

— introduce a change to legislation to make it easier for mortgagees to access Mortgage to Rent under the Personal Insolvency Arrangement;

— introduce measures that will ensure that those identified as at risk of homelessness are sufficiently provided for in order to prevent homelessness occurring;

— provide the necessary resources to local authorities to ensure that no family or individual, that presents as homeless, will be denied appropriate emergency accommodation within that council area;

— ensure that any emergency accommodation offered in a situation involving children will be within a reasonable distance from the children’s school; and

— accept that permanent, secure and affordable housing is a right for all citizens.

I wish to share time with Deputies Wallace, Daly, Halligan, Maureen O'Sullivan and Tom Fleming.

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