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

Táim an-bhuíoch deis a bheith agam labhairt ar an mholadh seo agus tacaíocht a thabhairt dó. I thank the Technical Group for raising the issue of housing through its Private Members' time this week. It is an issue close to my heart and that of Sinn Féin. I have raised the issue of housing in the Dáil almost every week since my election. Sinn Féin believes in the right to housing. It underpins our approach on the issue. People have a right to a secure and comfortable home. It is a right recognised by a UN convention and was recently recognised by the Constitutional Convention, which recommended its inclusion in Bunreacht na hÉireann. A date needs to be set for this referendum.

We have on our hands a housing crisis. Today the media recognises that this crisis exists. They fill column inches with human interest stories but are unwilling to cover any real proposed solutions. Sinn Féin has proposed solutions and initiatives all the while and we will continue to do so. We want to see people housed. I take no pleasure in the suffering and hardship people tell me about when they call into my office or drop in to meet me. I want to see the Government or any Government deal with the issue and I would welcome any initiative which seeks to deal with this problem.

I welcome recent moves by the Minister of State to renovate vacant houses and build new social housing units, but we need more and we need it sooner rather than later. Rents are out of control, particularly in Dublin, putting more and more people at risk of homelessness. Sinn Féin supports fair rent controls. We have included this in an amendment to the motion tabled by the Technical Group. I appreciate the Minister of State has commissioned a report into rent control options, but the people struggling to scrape together the money to keep their homes cannot wait. We have been waiting a very long time for a deposit retention scheme, despite positive soundings from the Minister of State. These must be dealt with as a matter of urgency, with rent control top of the agenda. Protection of tenants against eviction must also be strengthened in line with international law. We have seen no progress on this. Rent control, deposit schemes and eviction protections would make things better, but we still have a major problem because we simply do not have enough social housing. This is why rents are so high, why homelessness has increased and why emergency accommodation is bursting at the seams. It is why mothers sleep in their cars with their children and thousands of euro are spent putting families in hotels every week. At present in Dublin 174 families are in hotels, which costs more than €14,000 a day.

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