Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

What people want at this stage is hope. They want to see the Government planning to build 10,000 homes annually for the next few years. People will even put up with short-term solutions on the basis that there will be a long-term solution down the line. However, the Government’s proposals do not even provide for this. A War Cabinet should be established to decide where we can build social housing and how to borrow money through a Government bond to fund it.

I have a case of a young lad from Crumlin who has been in a homeless hostel for the past three years. He fell between the cracks in the homeless services because they were inundated and could not deal with his case. We eventually got him back into the system and I hope he will have a home in the future. As his George Foreman grill has been taken off him, however, he is forced to eat microwave dinners all the time. His general health and mental well-being have diminished in the meantime.

Last week at my clinic I saw three families within an hour and a half who were facing eviction because their landlords were increasing the rent. Rent increases in Dublin 8 and Dublin 12 were of the order of 18% last year. There is a disgusting apartheid operated by some landlords in this city when they declare when advertising their properties “no rent allowance accepted” or, using more sleight of hand, “work references only”. One measure that could be taken is preventing landlords from including these stipulations in their advertisements. If they do, they should be taken off the register of landlords immediately and not allowed to continue to rent property. This could be done overnight to stop this rack-renting by landlords.

I do not agree with increasing rent caps in the Department of Social Protection. There should be rent caps across the board and they should be introduced with immediate effect, linked with market increases and inflation. The fact remains that in the past people were able to make a deal with their landlord to pay an extra €100 a month on top of their rent allowance. However, the top-up payments have increased to €300 and €400 which are beyond many. Last night the Minister stated average rents in Dublin were 15.5% lower than they were at the peak in the fourth quarter of 2007. People’s wages, however, are way down on what they were in 2007. Most have seen their wages cut by one third through pension levies, the universal social charge, property tax and other taxes. What we are seeing is a double whammy - rising rents and decreasing wages - for those who cannot possibly maintain paying rent through rent allowance.

This issue has to be addressed through a war footing exercise. The Government must give people hope that one year down the line they will see social housing being built, with families having access to local schools, etc.

That there are 80,000 in receipt of rent allowance and 90,000 on housing waiting lists is a damning indictment of past and current policy adopted by the Government. I call on the Minister of State to address this critical issue.

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