Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I listened with interest to many speakers since the Bill was introduced in the House. One of the things we need to do in the future in terms of housing is to plan ahead. That is something that has not happened in the past 20 years or so.

I remember speaking to a leading social commentator almost 20 years ago and predicting the current housing crisis. I did so on the basis of the information available to me then, because there was a deliberate policy to shift away from direct-build local authority houses and local authority loans which many people availed of to buy their first house - sometimes their only house. There was a system available to people as soon as they needed a house to acquire one for themselves through their own efforts, either by purchase or through the local authority rental scheme of direct-build housing. Unfortunately, that system was replaced over time on the basis that the private rental sector would cater for this market in the future. That view was wrong. The reason that could never happen and would never work was simply because rents are bound to increase in line with the market. We can have all the rent controls we like, but the fact of the matter is that in an open market the prices will follow each other and the competition is upward as opposed to downward. When one has a glut of houses on the market, the effect is the opposite. I cannot understand how it was not possible for people to predict what would happen. We must remember also that during the same period there was a change of emphasis to shift the responsibility of local authorities to voluntary housing agencies. The Minister of State, Deputy Coffey, is aware of my views on voluntary housing agencies. I have no reason at all to dislike them other than because they are not a suitable mechanism to replace local authorities. A suitable alternative mechanism has not been found, nor should one be found in the first instance. I am a strong advocate of the need to build a regular number of local authority houses annually.

The situation also affects young people, especially young families. It affects young people with and without families in a very personal way, which in fact creates a huge amount of dismay among an entire coterie of people who feel they are excluded from the marketplace and that no matter what happens they will never get a house. If one wants proof of that, in some of the affordable housing systems that were built under the previous regime a provision was made for a clawback if the person ever had to sell the house or in the case of separation for example. A clawback of what? The unfortunate people had already struggled to get into that position, which meant there was an extra penalty to nail that group of people as if they had not been nailed enough already.

It was an appalling decision to allow it to develop in that way.

Shared ownership loans are strangling the people who have them. Although they were supposed to be helpful and affordable, they were not because some crude genius decided to introduce a penalty clause. Previously, the portion of the equity that was on rental would be dealt with by way of an ordinary local authority rent. This was changed to include an added penalty of 4.7% per annum so that whatever chance the unfortunate people had of breaking out of the system, they would certainly be nailed there forever. There are countless cases throughout the country of people with shared ownership loans who owe multiples of what they originally borrowed for no other reason than that they were unfortunate enough to have bought through an affordable shared ownership loan. What an appalling tragedy. I ask the Minister to take this into account in formulating housing policy and deal with it. Unfortunately, houses are being repossessed from people who have shared ownership loans and there is no way around it. Some people owe up to €100,000 on the part of the equity they were unable to pay simply because it increased on a rate of 4.7%, which means it doubles every ten years.

Like the Minister, and everybody else here, I have had experience of the housing market during a long number of years in my county. We would have required almost 1,000 houses between loans and direct build houses for the new generation coming along. It has not happened. During the boom, we got at most 25 houses annually. The rest was to be catered for by the private rental market. It did not work. We need to provide emergency accommodation as well as the accommodation the Government proposes. I welcome the Government's proposal, which is the first major intervention in the area in 20 years or more. However, I ask the Minister to consider the areas that are most seriously affected by housing shortages. There will be a necessity to provide emergency housing.

System built houses can be bought and put on site within three months. They are energy efficient and have a very high degree of heat retention, like any other house, up to a BER rating of A. However, local authorities do not like system built houses and will generally refuse planning permission for them. However, the situation is desperate. There are families which have been split three ways, with the children, male partner and female partner in three different houses. It is appalling. People are sleeping on floors. Families of four, five or six people are in two-bedroom accommodation with some people sleeping on the floor or in the kitchen. Parents have had to vacate their bedrooms and sleep on the floor or on a couch in order to ensure there are not mixed sleeping arrangements for the rest of the household. These are just a few of the issues that motivate anybody in the House who has a heart. We must focus on the situation that has emerged.

I am not making political capital out of this. I predicted it 20 years ago and again three, four and five years ago. I knew it was happening, and I knew it would happen when the Government came to power, given that it did not have the money, and no money was available, to begin the house building programme. Thanks to good management, we have cleared the first hurdle, namely, reorganising the national economy. The next step is to put together the social or humanity element of our society. We need to develop it, and can do so under the proposed legislation.

We have had discussions like this on many occasions. We have put forward countless alternatives to try to deal with the situation. I fear people do not fully realise the extent to which the necessity to meet the problem head-on is going to accelerate during the next three or four months. There are no houses in the marketplace. We have heard people talking about the 3,000 superfluous houses that would have to be demolished. Whenever I hear people talking about demolishing houses, I know they do not know what they are talking about. When a house has been built, in whatever shape or form, it needs to be retained and utilised for the people who need it. What about the land that was dezoned? Around 2007, there was a mad rush to dezone lands which could have been very useful now. They are gone. No forward planning was employed to identify future need. After a boom and a bust, there is a need for housing. During the past 40 or 50 years it has always been thus. We must think seriously about putting in place the necessary measures to track these patterns economically and put in place a remedy.

Raising rent support is only a temporary measure for six months at best, after which the rent support is chasing the inevitable rent increases driven by demand. While people say we should put a cap on rents, although I do not believe we can, it would have no impact. The people who had no houses yesterday and have no houses today will have no houses tomorrow. Other speakers have made this point.

Some on the Opposition benches raised their eyebrows when I and others raised the issue two years ago as an impending emergency. However, we raised it five years ago and ten years ago, and not many people at the time said we were right and that we needed to deal with the issue. I was here during the time and nobody thought it worthwhile or necessary to identify the single issue that affects every man, woman and child in the country, namely, a place to live, a place in which to put down their heads at night, an assurance that they would have shelter for themselves and their families and that they would not have to move from pillar to post overnight on a monthly or weekly basis. While I know the Minister of State is well disposed towards the legislation, I want him to reinvigorate his efforts to deal with the situation, given that it is an emergency on a scale which we have never experienced before.

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