John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the chance to say a few words on the Bill. I find myself agreeing with much of what Opposition speakers, including members of Sinn Féin, have said, but I fundamentally disagree with them on the matter of rent controls by another name, which is contained in the Bill. I will refer to this later.

I should declare my interests. I am a landlord, completely by accident. I am not sure if I am one of those who should be locked up according to some members of the Government. Like thousands of people, because of the economic situation in which the country found itself, I became a landlord completely by accident and unintentionally. I feel I should declare this at the start.

It does not matter whether one is from Sinn Féin, Fine Gael or any other political party, we all deal with people. Anyone who has been a member of a local authority, as I was until 14 years ago, has dealt with people trying to get and keep housing. The fundamental issue is one of supply. The Sinn Féin speakers are right. At the height of the boom, the State through its agencies got out of the provision of public housing, which was a disastrous mistake. It was a calamitous error at a time when the economy was overheating because of a bubble in construction when we thought we would have enough houses forever and a day. This meant not only did the private housing supply collapse once the economy collapsed, but increases in public housing supply were non-existent at that stage. The figure of 25,000 units is reckoned to be the number we need to produce per annum, and I welcome the fact the Government has set this as its target. I genuinely welcome what was announced today by the Ministers, Deputies Coveney and Donohoe, regarding proposals to fund necessary infrastructural improvements to ensure lands suitable for housing are able to be developed.

During the period of the Celtic tiger, most local authorities significantly reduced their landbanks. Where they have land, most of it is not in the areas with major demand for housing. This is a disastrous legacy of the politics of the former Minister, Mr. Noel Dempsey, who was the man who kicked me off the local authority 14 years ago when he got rid of the dual mandate. He was also the man who introduced Part V of the Planning and Development Act. He did many very damaging things to the country, as it turned out.

I wish to express my opposition, which I suppose is ideological, to rent controls. I do not see it as an ideological question. I studied rent controls when I was in college. There is no example of any city in the world where rent controls have had a positive effect in the medium or long term on the provision of housing, so a serious political party should not propose it as part of a measure. Of course it should be discussed, but it has not worked anywhere, so why would we look to introduce it here? The reason it has not worked is because it decreases the supply of available accommodation. This happened in every city, most famously in New York where, over the first ten years of rent controls, 300,000 fewer housing units became available because those who had a lot of money, wealth and property were not making enough of a return from renting and it was not economic for others to maintain accommodation at the necessary standards. It would be like a doctor writing a prescription for a patient and recommending medication which made the patient worse. This is why rent controls should not happen.

There is much in the Bill and in what has been discussed with which I agree. While we never know how long a Dáil will last or how long anybody will be in any position, there is an opportunity. So far, the Minister has proved himself eager to address this problem. We have all sat at desks with people with tears in their eyes who do not know where they will spend that night or where they will be the following week. There is nothing more dear to Irish people than the sense of home. The biggest calamity that has befallen us following the collapse of the Celtic tiger economy is that so many people now find themselves homeless, most of them through no fault of their own. There have always been homeless people who suffer from contributory problems, such as addiction or mental health issues. I urge the Minister in whatever time he has to ensure he addresses homelessness and housing provision, but not to go down the route of rent controls.

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