Brendan Ryan (Dublin North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We have a serious housing problem. The root cause is simple, namely the lack of housing supply. We are dealing with it through the Housing Strategy 2020. When we emerged from the troika shackles and were first in a position to do so, we set out an ambitious housing strategy, costed at over €3.8 billion. We have begun to build social housing units again. In Fingal County Council, local authority houses are again being built in Balbriggan, Balrothery, Lusk, Swords and Ballyboughal. The number of void units in Fingal has been reduced from 201 in December 2013 to 28 as a result of Government funding.

Some local authorities still have a problem with voids, however, which is unacceptable. The planning process and building of homes does not happen overnight. The lag between the announcement of funding and turning the key means we need other emergency measures. The private rental market, as well as rent supplement, still has a role to play in solving this crisis. There are calls from some in opposition and the non-governmental organisation, NGO, sector to raise the rent supplement threshold across the board. I do not believe, however, this would solve the problem as it would serve to further inflate the rental market.

The statutory discretionary power of community welfare officers to set an agreed rent over and above the rent supplement limit is an important tool in tackling the threat of homelessness resulting from rent increases. Community welfare officers are using this discretion in Fingal when they can and it is helping to keep people in their homes. It must be expanded to all areas.

The real tool we need to combat extortionate rent increases is rent certainty. This was a recommendation made by my colleagues and I on the Labour Party’s housing committee. It needs to be brought in urgently as it has been talked about for far too long. It is immoral for a landlord to hike up rent without having to compare it to another measure such as the consumer price index. The scandalous discrimination by landlords against rent supplement tenancy applicants will be outlawed by the Minister of State, Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin.

I see the housing crisis at first hand in my constituency clinics and it must be given the urgency it deserves. I have confidence that with Labour in government we can and will solve this problem. We need a strong, sensible and multifaceted approach. What we do not need is what we have seen from Sinn Féin at local level. Its councillors supported a full 15% reduction in the local property tax in Fingal County Council and other areas to the detriment of housing and homelessness budgets. Neither do we need what we had in Fingal and other areas when councillors from People Before Profit and the Anti-Austerity Alliance voted against the provision of social housing in Balrothery and Balbriggan. Nor do we need anti-tax socialists crying crocodile tears about the housing crisis and then refusing to take responsibility to help when the opportunity presents itself. We need every stakeholder and organisation, be they political party or approved housing agency, to pull together to deliver solutions. Government funding is not a problem in this regard.

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