Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, and congratulations on your election. Thank you for chairing the House without fear or favour, as you promised.

Dublin South-West, like many places in Ireland, suffers from a chronic shortage of social and affordable housing. A total of 291 people are registered as homeless with South Dublin County Council, not including the 64 families living in temporary accommodation or the 81 families in hotels. While it is not always apparent in statistics, many Deputies have identified the level of hidden homelessness of those who, while they have a roof over their heads, are living in overcrowded and cramped conditions. Like other Deputies, I have met such families. I recently met a family in Tallaght who have three generations, ten people, living in a small three-bedroom home. Many families and households are forced to accommodate extended family members or friends, turning their sitting rooms into living accommodation. One constituent told me that a neighbour and her child were moving from sofa to sofa to sofa, staying with anyone who would accommodate them.

I strongly agree that we need a whole-Parliament approach and a plan to address the crisis in housing supply and family homelessness, and that we need to move swiftly towards forming a functioning Government to provide immediate medium- and long-term solutions. All of us, with the Government or as part of the Government, can come together to end family homelessness and support all our citizens in securing a home for themselves. There is no reason we cannot do it if our political will is rooted in our soul.

One of the most urgent issues we must address is the protection of tenants' rights in cases in which lenders, often banks owned by the Irish people, are repossessing buy-to-let landlords. A lack of legal clarity in this area allows unscrupulous receivers to evict tenants with only days to find another home. This growing phenomenon may account for up to half of the recent cases of family homelessness. According to Focus Ireland, such evictions have become the single largest contributor to family homelessness, and the situation must be addressed without delay. We must raise rent supplement levels in a systematic, policy-based way rather than a case-by-case basis to enable people to access housing in the private sector. Now that we have introduced the 24-month rent freeze legislation, the argument that this would raise overall rents is no longer valid.

It is equally important that we urgently address the widespread practice of landlords of rent supplement recipients demanding top-up payments from their tenants. This must be terminated by creating a more serious offence for landlords who accept top-ups, rather than penalising the rent supplement recipient, who is in a more vulnerable situation.

Other Deputies have referred to the over-reliance on the private sector for social housing. Social housing delivery is a key factor in the ongoing crisis. The commitment of successive Governments to neoliberal dogma resulted in an inability to recognise the flawed logic that the private sector would deliver a sufficient quantity of social housing. This model has, instead, produced the lowest supply when the needs for social housing are the highest. We need, instead, a reliable stream of social and affordable housing constructed with State leadership and involvement.

We need a State agency to drive solutions on housing supply. Although NAMA has been suggested for this role, it does not have the expertise and skills needed, and we need to examine other options. One of the issues a State agency should examine is the cost of building. Many other Deputies have referred to it, as did the Minister in his remarks. It has been dubbed the single biggest barrier to housing supply. If this barrier could be reduced or removed, we would be a long way down the path towards resolving the housing shortage.

The Central Bank rules will effectively cap house prices, which is a principle we must defend to avoid yet another housing bubble. However, if we cap prices, we must also consider capping the cost of building. If the balance between cost and profits is not in line, it will lead to the end of our construction industry.

We must reform the private rental sector. My last Seanad Bill was an effort to do so, and I look forward to resurrecting it in some form in order to address the terms of renting for tenants and landlords in the private sector. The recent highlighting of the actions of vulture funds demonstrates how vital it is that current landlords remain in the sector and, equally important, that more landlords enter the market, but only those who respect the rights of tenants to have security of tenure and certainty of rent in their homes.

One of the most fundamental solutions, which could cement and underpin all other solutions, is the inclusion in our Constitution of the right to housing, accommodation or shelter. While it might include a public debate on Article 43, to which the Minister referred, on the right to property, I am talking about inserting a new article rather than amending an existing one.

For a people and a nation whose culture has been shaped by the seanfhocal, that we live in one another's shelter, I think in 2016 a constitutional referendum for a right to a home would demonstrate a way to tap into our ethical fibre to solve the homelessness and shelterlessness crisis.

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