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

Ba mhaith liom buíochas a thabhairt do gach éinne a thóg páirt sa díospóireacht. I thank everyone who took part in the debate. Even though I might not have agreed with everyone's opinion, it was an important debate. It was a little difficult to listen to the nonsense the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government had to share with us last night. To have the Bill dismissed on Second Stage due to supposed flaws is hard to take from a member of the Government presiding over the mess of the Legal Services Bill 2011 in the Seanad, with pages of amendments being added one day only to be deleted the next. He is, of course, the Minister who last week took a three-year old Bill stuck in the Seanad and tacked on 54 pages of amendments to pretend to be doing something about rents. Let us not pretend the opposition to this Bill is anything to do with its drafting. It is purely ideological; if not, it could be accepted and amended on Committee Stage like every other Bill. If it was anything other than ideological, the Minister would have created legislative provisions for people at risk of homelessness previously. If it was anything other than the Government parties' pathetic subservience to landlords and developers, it would have created rent certainty. Instead, they have kicked the can down the road while ensuring a rent increase for most tenants just before Christmas as landlords prepare for their weak new measures.

The Minister's response last night would have been disappointing if it was not true to form. With one breath, he was complimenting groups such Threshold and, with another, condemning the measures they have called for because they were being put forward by Sinn Féin. Perhaps if he had made it to the debate on time, he might have heard me quoting from the very report that highlighted the need for this reform, which was published by Threshold, Focus, Simon Community and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. I did not miss his contribution on the RTE news last night where he bragged about the provision of 4,600 emergency beds. He never stopped to think how disgraceful it is that this number of emergency beds is needed in Ireland in 2015. He certainly did not seem to think about that when he came into the House and arrogantly dismissed provisions for homelessness prevention and rent certainty in this legislation.

The Minister said Sinn Féin is strong on rhetoric. This is from someone who has created more pages of reports and press releases than he has built homes. He clearly has no clue. His solution to homelessness is to buy modular units, which are a third more expensive than houses currently for sale. They will cost €191,000 each. It will cost €75 million for 500 units, yet houses can be bought for less than €120,000 in the areas he plans to put these units. It took him a full year to get around to a one-year delay in rent increases with absolutely no provision for rent certainty or rent control. He called his measures innovative but there is nothing new or different about spin and bluster from him and the Government and there is nothing new about failing to deliver for those most in need.

This Bill like every Bill taken on Second Stage is imperfect but its objectives are positive and good. It seeks to give local authorities and other relevant bodies the power and responsibility to help those at risk of losing their homes and to provide support to keep them in their homes because they have nowhere else to go. Surely in a country where 73 families become homeless every month, there is a need to keep people in their homes. Surely in a country where we spend €70 million a year just to stand still on homelessness, we need to protect people in their homes. When hotel rooms, bed and breakfast accommodation, and modular units costing €191,000 each are the other options, keeping people in their homes becomes the only real, humane and sensible option. The same logic applies to rent certainty. Rent certainty is not what the Government falsely called a rent freeze; it is a rent increase delay. It is the limiting of future increases to give certainty to tenants. It is the bare minimum as rent regulation goes. It is far short of the model we would like in place where rents are controlled by local standard rates, which goes much further than the Government's weak offering. The only certainty the Government offers renters is that they will be subject to higher rents before Christmas and they will be even higher in two years. The Minister has also put a limit of four years on this measure and has called it a sunset clause. He needs to go into the sunset, like all the other members of Government. The rejection of the Bill by the Government is unacceptable and pathetic.

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