Eamonn Maloney (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter. It focuses on the issue of homelessness and I phrased it so that it relates to families.

Our traditional view of homelessness tends be that it affects an individual whose particular circumstances have led to the person, be they male or female, ending up on the street. However, something different is happening now. It is largely the fall-out from the collapse of the economy and the banking system. People sometimes boast about the great things that came from the Celtic tiger economy. I am sure there were some, but there were many things that were not so pleasant, such as emigration and so forth. The housing crisis was one of them and the present Government is left in the situation of trying to resolve it, given the history of not only social housing but also private housing over the past ten years. Social housing was practically abandoned by the previous Government and the current Government had no money. Just as in the case of hospitals, which was the subject of the previous Topical Issue, if one does not have money, one cannot do things. That is the reality.

Currently, we have the highest percentage of people in the private rented sector in the history of the State. That includes families and students. It is a mixture of families. Some are comfortably off while some are on very low incomes. There are also families who are in receipt of the rent supplement, which quite rightly gets much attention. However, a new problem that has got out of control is the increase in private rents. It is spiralling. It is said to be a phenomenon confined to Dublin, but it is not. Private rents are out of control. I can offer the example of my area, Dublin 24, which has seen the highest increases. In some of the cases I am dealing with, private rents have increased by 31% in a period of 24 months. No rent supplement can compensate for that. We must get a handle on whether the hard-pressed taxpayer should continuously chase after the increases that private landlords add to the rental for their premises. I do not believe they should, and it is something to which many taxpayers would object.

Essentially, given the increase in rents in the private rental sector, I believe families who are in private rented accommodation will end up as part of the homeless population - the individual people we tend to talk about - unless we introduce a rent freeze for a period of two years.

While some in the House think we can introduce a programme and build houses in three months, the reality is different. It takes 18 months to two years to build a house and I would expect legislators to know this. In the intervening period it is getting out of control and homelessness will affect not just individuals but also families. The argument has been made that controlling rents is a constitutional matter. If so, it is up to the Minister and me to do something about it. What use is a Constitution that leads to families finding themselves homeless?

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