Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this topic because I have been listening with great interest to the debates of the Committee on Housing and Homelessness in recent weeks. The committee has had various groups before it as it tries to get a firm handle on the problem and produce an overall set of proposals for the Minister to consider and discuss with all sides of the House.

The committee, for which Sinn Féin called in the early days of this Thirty-second Dáil, will report this Friday. There is no doubt, given that all parties and many experts across the board fed into its recommendations, that the results of its work will form the basis for responding to the major national crisis facing us. This is a crisis about which there should not be any rancour or division among the political groupings in the Dáil. We should try to reach a consensus to ensure we tackle the crisis in a meaningful way.

I was particularly interested in listening to the contribution to the Committee on Housing and Homelessness of the chairman of the City and County Managers Association, Mr. Eugene Cummins. Mr. Cummins, who is also the chief executive of Roscommon County Council, previously held the position of director of services in Meath County Council and was the town manager in Navan. Deputy Peadar Tóibín and I know Mr. Cummins well. He thinks deeply about the issues and challenges facing local councils as the lead authorities for dealing with this issue. In his conclusions, Mr. Cummins noted the great importance of ensuring the private sector becomes a main player in the provision of housing because the problem of trying to find a home is common not only to the many thousands who find themselves on council housing waiting lists - on which people can wait up to eight years to be housed as is the case in County Meath - but also to those who earn a decent income. While they have the ability to purchase a home, they are as far away as ever from turning the dream of home ownership into a reality because of the lack of homes being built. No one seems to stand up for this whole new group of people in the squeezed middle. I will stand up for those who cannot get on the property ladder because there are no homes being built, especially in pressure areas such as County Meath, County Louth, which is represented by Deputy Gerry Adams, County Kildare and County Wicklow, which Deputy Pat Casey represents.

Among the issues the committee examined in connection with the lack of activity in housing construction is the cost of constructing a home and the taxes associated with doing so. Having listened to Deputy Mick Wallace speak very knowledgeably about this issue, I agree with much of what he said on the subject. There is no doubt that the lack of supply caused by the absence of construction has allowed unscrupulous landlords to exploit people in receipt of rent supplement as well as those who earn a good wage but find themselves paying exorbitant rents because the market has given those in command of property the upper hand. The figures clearly demonstrate the reason this has occurred. Last year, 9,000 homes were constructed when we need at least 25,000 housing units per annum. It is a case of simple mathematics.

The need to rebalance the market in favour of people seeking accommodation must be tackled in a manner that helps those affected, rather than makes matters worse or creates a short-term spike in rents in what is already a volatile marketplace or makes people homeless rather than keeping them in their homes. We cannot do this in isolation from all the other issues discussed in this debate.

As Deputy Pat Casey noted, the Fianna Fáil Party proposes an area-based rental index governed by the Private Residential Tenancies Board, PRTB, for a maximum of three years. There is no doubt that the key issue of supply must be addressed. For too long, the building industry and builders who provide homes have been considered dirty words.

When I hear the emotive and grandiose speeches in this House from people on the left, I often wonder who they think will build the homes that will sort out this problem. Do they think it will be magic fairies or little people with pixie dust? I hear all the problems, but the reality is that some people on the left must acknowledge that we need builders to help those people to get their first homes. This applies not only to those on the council housing waiting list, but those in the squeezed middle. They have the capacity to buy a home but are being squeezed out because of the conditions that exist at present. This is something those on the left cannot bring themselves to do.

There is a broken market and a broken housing sector. It is not only impacting on those who are struggling to get a home. It does not encourage people who could get a home either. Let us look closely at the detail and the findings of the committee report on Friday. Let us work collectively to try to find an agreed strategy such that landlords, those who are hoarding zoned land and the statutory agencies are all make aware that there is a serious plan on the table with teeth. In this way they will get the message that they need to respond to it or else they will get beaten into submission.

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