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

Yes.

Nothing is included in these plans to deal with this matter. The Government's measures could easily have included a section to nullify rent reviews carried out within a few weeks or months of the enactment of the law. Better still, they could have included rent controls and rent certainty and it could have happened months if not years ago. Back then, there was not an election around the corner as there is now.

The Government's plan continues with the failed model of allowing increases within what it calls the market rate. This has been heralded in the media as a new check on rent levels, but it is the same ill-defined model that existed before and does nothing to regulate increases when a rent review happens. Sinn Féin has repeatedly called for Government intervention in the private rental market to deal with unaffordable, spiralling rent rates. We were told originally it was not a problem at all and now we are told the Government will solve it by doing the bare minimum and hoping someone will build a few thousand extra houses. It certainly will not be this Government building them; it has only built a handful of houses this year and intends to build just 1,750 by the end of 2017. It has built less in five years than in any single year preceding its tenure.

In government, Sinn Féin would have invested substantially in the construction, acquisition and refurbishment of social housing for the last five years, creating jobs, providing homes, generating rental revenue and making savings in rent supplement and emergency accommodation by doing so. We would have introduced rent controls to limit the amount that can be charged per square metre based on local area rates and would have limited increases to the rate of inflation. If this had been done, rents would be significantly lower right now and we would not need to spend €70 million a year just to stand still on the homeless crisis.

The provisions of this Bill are the absolute minimum Sinn Féin would do in government and that is why we have put it to the House tonight. We know that the Government is opposed to building social housing; it has shown this in the last five years of inaction and undermining of local authorities. We know it is opposed to intervention in the private rental market because it has allowed rents to increase by at least 35% during its tenure, and up to now its only response was to cut rent supplement twice. The Bill asks very little of the Government, though supporting it would be very positive. It asks that the Minister recognise the need to properly support prevention measures for homelessness and support for those at risk of homelessness.

The amendments to sections 2 and 10 of the Housing Act 1988 were proposed by a coalition of housing and homelessness charities and advocacy groups, but this was ignored by the Government as homelessness spiralled out of control. Now that we have 1,500 children in hotels and bed and breakfasts, will the Government see the merit of such provisions? With 80 new families becoming homeless each month, can we ignore the need for preventative measures?

In the joint document Preventing Homelessness: the Need for Legislative Change, Focus Ireland, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Threshold and the Simon Community concluded that:

Actions to prevent homelessness must be at the forefront of all homeless services. Housing advice and advocacy have a critical role to play in minimising the need for, and the time spent in, emergency accommodation. Tenancy support has an equally important role to play in assisting people in sustaining their existing accommodation, or retaining it where they have moved out of homelessness. While the importance and cost effectiveness of these interventions is widely accepted [...], the current wording of Section 10 of the Housing Act limits the scope of such interventions, with the result that they are underdeveloped and piecemeal.

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