Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Social Democrats are very happy to support the Bill on Second Stage. We commend the proposers of this timely Bill.

The Minister often talks about the rental market as if it is a normal functional market. Of course, we know the rental market in recent years has been highly dysfunctional because the provision of housing is highly dysfunctional. All aspects of housing are connected. Yesterday's CSO figures for the average house price in all counties and postal districts in the Dublin area made for very stark reading. It was a damning indictment of the performance of this and the previous Governments in tackling the housing crisis.

The Minister and his colleagues in government seem to think that somehow the market will deal with the housing crisis and we know that is simply not right. For example, based on yesterday's figures the market has resulted in the average house price last year in the Dublin 9 area in my constituency reaching €358,000. Dublin 9 is a very pleasant area but is not by any means close to the top of the housing market. Anybody trying or aspiring to buy their own home in that area would be required to have a deposit of €36,000. Even more crushingly it requires a mortgage applicant to have an income of €92,000 a year, which is 2.5 times the average income for a fairly modest house in the Dublin area.

This means that those buying in Dublin need to have a very substantial household income. It also means it is virtually impossible for a single income family to buy a house, which has all kinds of implications for affordability and also for people deciding to set up home and start a family. For the foreseeable future it will require two people to get a mortgage like that for a fairly modest home and it will mean those two people working full time for an indefinite period, which has very serious implications for society.

NAMA has clearly played a very negative role in recent years. It was an agency set up to tackle the debt crisis. It is now contributing substantially to the housing crisis. The Social Democrats today called for a halt on all NAMA transactions and for us to review the remit NAMA has been given. Its primary remit is to make a return to the taxpayer and in so doing, particularly because of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, instructing it to bring forward the wind-up date, it means it has engaged in fire sales.

Rather than being in a position to assist in tackling the housing crisis, it is contributing to it. The Minister needs to take that on and deal with it.

The other point is that just as NAMA needs to change its remit, so too do the banks. Very clear instructions need to be given to them. The banks in this country were bailed out by the taxpayer. Their bacon was saved and in return for that the two main pillar banks are turfing people out of their homes at a huge rate. They are seeking to clean up their balance sheets by selling properties and appointing receivers. This is an absolutely intolerable situation. Again, the Minister has the power to instruct banks not to appoint receivers to homes that have tenants in situ. The Minister should instruct the banks to appoint rent receivers so that the properties that are in the ownership of the banks will remain available to the people who are currently in them and to others who may want to rent them.

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