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

On the face of it, the Fianna Fáil motion says practically nothing. It certainly proposes very little, and what it does propose is either vague or seriously flawed. The lack of any firm proposals in this motion speaks volumes. Fianna Fáil, like the Government, is incapable of grasping the reality, namely, that the crisis we face in housing and particularly social housing has now reached epidemic proportions. Fianna Fáil is incapable of talking about the real solutions because like the Government, it is utterly opposed to them. Like the Government, Fianna Fáil is completely wedded to the model it carved out in the early 2000s, namely, to dismantle State provision of housing and move all responsibility away from local authorities and onto the private sector and voluntary housing bodies. Fianna Fáil cannot really propose solutions because like the Government its policies are more of the same.

Under Fianna Fáil the primary way new applicants for social housing got housed was through the use of a public subsidy of private accommodation and coupled with large discounts for council tenants to buy their homes, and a reliance on disastrous PPP models. The local authority housing stock was chopped again and again. There was a steep decrease in the delivery of major social housing projects and increased use of regeneration projects which delivered more private units where council houses once stood. Even back in the mid-2000s it was clear there was a major problem with the provision of social housing as tens of thousands of applicants waited for months and even years to be housed. We did not realise how bad things would get, but it was clear from the policy of the time that they were not getting better.

Due to the failure of Fianna Fáil to regulate the banks and its utter capitulation to Europe, we were left with a bailout programme that required serious financial readjustment. Unfortunately, with right-wing parties in government such as Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, the adjustments tend always to be about squeezing from those who have little to give. In Fianna Fáil's last few years in government, housing became a major target for cuts. Fine Gael kept up the tradition and now we have a yearly housing capital spend that is more than €1 billion short of the spend in 2008. This year, the Government had the audacity to herald from on high an announcement that it would spend just over twice the 2008 housing budget over a period of six years. As one might expect when one picks the numbers apart, much like the motion, it is very short of anything approaching a solution.

Fianna Fáil might not have a solution to the housing crisis but neither does the Government. The Government does one thing very well when it comes to housing and that is spin. It has shown itself to be a master at moving the goalposts and twisting figures. I cannot count how many times Government officials have announced the same figures and pretended they were new figures. In the early days of the Government it seemed that every few months we were told NAMA would deliver 4,000 homes, as if it was new information or even touching on being accurate. At present, NAMA has only delivered a quarter of that, and it only did it once.

Now the Government is shouting to anyone who will listen that it willspend €3.8 billion on housing in the next six years. That is, on average, €630 million a year, which is approximately €34 million more than was spent last year. In case one was not paying attention, 2014 was not the year that the housing crisis was solved. It was the year homelessness reached record highs, housing need did not budge and we spent an additional €500 million on private rent subsidies for good measure. We also spent millions renting hostels and hotel rooms for families for whom we could not be bothered to build houses.

That said, the Government did produce its Housing Strategy 2020 in 2014. This is the strategy which pledged an extra €34 million a year and claimed it would deliver 35,000 houses. Of course "deliver" is a somewhat vague term. One could ask from where the houses will be delivered. According to the Minister's responses to recent parliamentary questions, they will be delivered from thin air in a lot of cases, brought into being by wishful thinking and more of the same. When I asked the Minister how many of the promised 7,400 homes local authorities would deliver in 2015, I was told it would be approximately 2,400. Somehow, in the midst of the greatest shortage of residential rental properties in recent memory, when construction is still very low, the Government believes it will find 5,000 new rental properties on the private market. I am very interested to hear how it will do that. Many people cannot even find a room in Dublin. Vacancies are filled within hours of advertisements appearing. People are so desperate they are agreeing to take on apartments at extortionate rents without even a viewing. The Minister must be clear about how the Government intends to deliver the housing and the extra cost the private subsidy will incur.

Sinn Féin has been clear from the very start of the crisis that the problem is a shortage of social housing and the only solution is more social housing. The private market is unable or unwilling to provide housing to large sections of society in any kind of stable way and the State has the ultimate responsibility to ensure its people have access to affordable, secure and comfortable housing. The money now pledged for the Government's strategy must be redirected towards investment in the building of social housing. The only policy difference Fianna Fáil offers is one which simply does not stack up. Increasing rent supplement levels by removing the cap would simply drive up rents further while providing no security for the vast majority of people under threat due to high rents or unable to find housing within the range of the cap.

In autumn 2014, the average rent in Dublin, where a significant number of rent supplement recipients reside, is €1,296, while the average rent for a double room is €518. The problem in many cases is not with rates of rent supplement or the cap but simply the fact that rents are impossibly high not just for the unemployed who are eligible for rent supplement, but for single people with no dependants on low and middle incomes. The average rent supplement payment last year was €4,400 a year for approximately 75,000 people. A 10% increase in rent supplement payments would cost approximately €32 million and would do very little to protect recipients from eviction. It would simply further line the pockets of landlords. The removal of the cap or its increase would probably push up prices. It would also ensure many people on rent supplement would be forced to pay even more in their own contribution, leaving less for food and utilities. Throwing more money at private rents only serves the landlords, but of course many landlords sit in this House and it is no surprise that such a measure might be popular. In the absence of a major increase in social housing this policy would be disastrous and at best it would be a costly exercise in distraction.

The solution to the rent crisis is to introduce a system of rent control in conjunction with a major campaign of building social housing through local authorities. Rents must be regulated. They cannot be allowed to be so strongly controlled by the whim of private developers and landlords who are reaping the rewards of a housing shortage and extorting inexcusably high rents from struggling families and working people. Rent control would set a guide level for accommodation based on location and quality, which could be tailored to reflect changes in the economic climate, the cost of living and inflation. There is no excuse for increases in rent which amount to 40% in one year.

Rent control would ensure that rents would never fall below what is reasonable or rise above what is affordable. It is essential that housing is affordable for the public. Any claims that rent control would be unconstitutional are clearly incorrect, as any fair-minded reading of the relevant articles of Bunreacht na hÉireann will show.

Seven years after they presided over an unprecedented property crash, Fianna Fáil members still rail against financial regulation; they have learned nothing. Imagine we were back in 2005 and a Central Bank were to propose an end to 100% mortgages. Fianna Fáil would be up in arms, as its members are now. They are very slow learners. Their instinct is to oppose regulation and especially when issues like property are being discussed.

The bubble in both residential and commercial property was down in large part to a failure in regulation. It is depressing to hear the party that oversaw that bubble and did its best to reduce regulation once again attacking proposals that bring some sense into the property market. The rich and those with rich families will always be able to outbid others. What creates bubbles and forces workers out of the housing market is excessive and unregulated credit.

In our proposal Sinn Féin welcomed the broad thrust of the Central Bank's original proposals. There has much concern during the public discussions about how these rules will affect young families trying to buy in particular. Sinn Féin shares that concern. The reason young families and young workers cannot save is due to the low wage economy this Government is building. It is because young workers cannot make ends meet and that is before water charges come in. Even when it has some space to give something back, the Government brought in a budget that favoured only the top 40% better-off and made the rest, the majority, poorer.

At the end of the third quarter of last year, 117,000 families were in arrears on their family homes. That is 15.5% of all family homes. Many of them are working families but when a bank that can borrow money from the ECB at 1% or 2% is charging them 4% or 5% interest, they cannot afford their mortgage. However, that does not concern this Government. It acts like Pontius Pilate and ignores the fact that it owns some of these banks.

Sinn Féin has drafted legislation that would give the Financial Regulator the final say as to whether interest rates hikes are justifiable at State-owned banks. When this Government first came to power, its members huffed and puffed when the banks increased their rates but now they hide under the table with their hands over their ears. The Central Bank is doing its job and the Government should start doing its job.

I refer to the big problem which is that families are becoming homeless. There has been a haemorrhage from rental supplement and RAS. People are ending up homeless and are going to hostels and bed and breakfast accommodation. Some of them are dragging their children across the city and they do not know where they will end up. There are significant social and financial consequences.

Prices are heading back to those of the Celtic tiger era. Have we learned nothing? Last night, I visited a house in Whitehall. The tenant and her children had to sleep downstairs in a three-bedroom house because of the serious dampness and mildew which threatened their health. I went upstairs and I could not breathe when I entered the room. These are the conditions of some of the houses. I refer to a survey of housing in central Dublin carried out by the local authority. Many houses were below standard.

The rules and regulations governing landlords and their responsibilities are not being enforced. More power was given to local authorities but it is not sufficient. People who complain are sometimes served with notice to quit, as happened in the case to which I have referred. That person, who has several children, was served with a notice to quit. The mortgage to rent issue needs to be reviewed. There has been a very small take-up but it is a necessary step. Given that house values have now risen above €200,000, people are told they are not suitable candidates for the mortgage to rent scheme. This is scandalous and it must be revisited. Housing should be a right which should be enshrined in the Constitution. There needs to be an investment in housing by providing an immediate stimulus. A total of €1 billion should be taken from the strategic investment fund. It did not bother us taking over €500 million from the pension reserve fund for water meters for which there is no need. There is money available in the strategic investment fund. The Minister has stated that he intends to use some of that money. I welcome that decision because I have been saying for years that the money is there. Sinn Féin has tabled numerous parliamentary questions to find out that information. That money needs to be invested immediately to get things up and running because we all know that if we start building now it will take a year or a year and a half to two years before we can deliver. That is one of the problems we face. We need to act now. With regard to housing, it is clear we are moving back to our lax ways that put us in this position in the first place.

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