Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There is no question that we are in the middle of a housing crisis - a private housing crisis, a rental crisis and a social housing crisis. Debating housing is a very good start to this new session because it needs to be one of our national priorities. As I am sure is the case with all Deputies, not a week goes by that I do not have people on housing waiting lists coming into my office, talking about their family situation, waiting eight, nine, ten and sometimes 12 years on housing waiting lists for a social house. Unfortunately we are picking up the pieces of a housing crash and a policy that existed under the previous Government of not building any social housing and just handing it over to the rental market, and unwinding that is proving very difficult.

I must agree with the concept that social housing is interlinked with the private house-building market. There is no problem in housing that does not have a knock-on consequence for another sector. So if people cannot buy a home, they have to rent a home which increases rental rates. If people cannot afford rent, they need social housing and that puts pressure on the social housing market. Every one of those facets feeds into the lack of supply and causes a problem. I agree we need to take a much more holistic and comprehensive approach.

I acknowledge that the Government has many policies and that the Ministers will be coming back with a social housing construction programme, which I welcome. The signal it sends that the Government believes in building social housing is important. I look forward to championing and seeking funding for my constituency in Galway West for that housing.

We need to take a broader look at the housing market. Treating it as a flexible market, as we do, open to market forces where supply and demand are always paramount will always leave us with problems in the housing market. If we hand over responsibility and say that housing is not a right and is not something that everybody requires but is something that the market will provide and we allow market forces dictate, we will repeat the problems we had in the boom with an improved economy because speculators with money, developers with wealth and people with connections can control that vital housing market again.

Housing is something that everybody requires; there is not a citizen - a child, adult or old person - who does not need a roof over their head, irrespective of whether that is provided by themselves from their own endeavour and income or through a helping hand from the State. We cannot allow it to go back to a private market that will profiteer and take advantage of shortage of supply.

First we need to decide as a society how much an average working person should have to pay for their home. Should they have to borrow ten times their income as happened during the boom? Should a couple who have just had their first child have to mortgage themselves for 35 years and cripple themselves with debt? We have not resolved that question. We have not said what we want the ultimate outcome of a housing policy to be.

When we decide what is equitable and what a fair housing model is, then we can decide what the public sector should provide for those who cannot reach that average level. If cost is an issue and we are going to make sure that cost matters, we can then step in to prevent someone who has land on the outskirts of a city which he may have inherited from a parent who died 30 or 40 years ago suddenly becoming a millionaire overnight because the land is rezoned as it is required for residential purposes allowing him to sell it off to the highest bidder who then builds houses and charges young couples vast amounts for those houses.

Is that what we want to do or do we want to change it and say that housing is a right and we will control the price of building land and buy up land banks? Will we say that no more will we hand it over for speculators and people who can make a quick buck in order to ensure that everybody in this society who goes to work knows that they will be able to afford a home? We would then be able to step in and support those who are unfortunate not to be able to work or who are in low-paid sectors of society. However, until we make that decision as a society we will be chasing rather than leading and we will be catching up rather than providing a proper housing system.

Much of what the Government is doing is very good. We need a small change of mindset to take it even further and to reach the point where we can be absolutely certain that housing is no longer a variable issue, but something in which we can be concrete.

I am happy that Sinn Féin raised the issue because it is good to have it discussed in this House. However, just last week Galway City Council faced a motion from Sinn Féin councillors to reduce the local property tax. Sinn Féin cannot complain about local authorities not having funding to provide the important things we need, such as housing and refurbishing houses to look after extensions for people with disabilities, while at the same time appealing to the same gallery and promising to reduce the amount of money in our coffers. It does not make economic sense; it is just cheap populist politics.

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