Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will cut to the chase in this debate. This crisis is manufactured. It has been in the mists for the last seven or eight years. It is a crisis that has been caused by politicians like the Minister of State - I do not mean that personally - and his party colleagues, as well as members of Fianna Fáil looking the other way. It is a crisis that has brought untold misery to thousands of people. It is ideologically driven by the worst forms of neoliberalism, which commodifies housing. Nowadays, most people refer to housing as property but housing is a home, in my eyes.

There are so many examples of families and working people who are in absolute crisis and who have nowhere to go. At the same time, some have made serious profits from this crisis. I want to draw attention to two companies in particular. I had not heard of them until a few weeks ago when I started doing some research for this debate. The companies in question have lovely names but they are actually ruthless. The first is a company called I-RES REIT. This company generated a pre-tax profit of €30 million last year, up from €7.9 million in 2014, on the back of strong rental growth and high occupancy levels. The group said that it had net assets worth €435 million at the end of December. The other company is called Green REIT, which recorded a 10% increase in contracted annual rent this year, to €61.3 million from 21 properties. Its net asset value rose by €148 million. These companies were set up to avail of very generous tax laws introduced by the current Minister for Finance which enable international investors to capitalise by buying properties which were sold very cheaply by the State and then renting them out for astronomical amounts. That is very unjust.

I am from Dublin Mid-West, the same constituency as Deputy Ó Broin. When I was a councillor, the issue that always dominated was housing, but nothing shocks me anymore. I hear stories all the time from people who phone or call into my office but nothing shocks me anymore, such is the extent of the housing crisis in this country. I have spoken to people who have been on the housing waiting list for ten to 12 years and who have run out of options, both physically as well as mentally. Their situation is doing terrible things to their minds and to the lives of their children and it is ruining their social lives. There is a litany of horrible things going on Ireland at the moment. People are being forced to live in hotels or in totally overcrowded conditions. They are living in appalling circumstances that are not of their making but are of the Government's making. This is ideologically driven.

The housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme is simply not working, according to the vast majority of people who have contacted my office. I heard of a case recently where a family has been given homeless HAP up to the tune of €1,900 for a two-bedroom unit. This is leading to a situation where vulture funds and unscrupulous landlords are increasing rents further, in the face of the unnatural level of demand. There is a huge crisis out there and this Bill, which is not perfect by any means, is an attempt to address the horrendous situation for those in need of social housing, as well as those who simply want to rent and get on with their lives. At the moment, some people are spending up to 70% of their income on rent and that is not acceptable.

I was born and grew up in a housing estate in Neilstown and am very proud of where I am from. That housing estate was not without its problems at the beginning but it has grown into a very mature and good place to live.

It is predominantly an area of social housing. I suggest 95% of houses in the area are social housing. I take exception to anybody inside or outside this House suggesting we cannot have 100% social housing anymore because it would lead to social problems. It is absolute rubbish to use such language. When people are given good housing, infrastructure and transport links, they will grow with their communities and become good citizens.

The ideology or policy of the Government and its predecessor has been that there must be mixed-tenure dwellings and projects, which is fair enough. I understand there must be mixed tenure. However, the vast majority of projects are now so diluted that they have less than 20% social housing. If this continues, we are going to keep coming back to the same problem, which is that people cannot be housed in the State. I have many problems with Fianna Fáil, but at least it housed people in the 1950s and the 1960s at a time when the country had nothing. People were housed in great areas of Dublin like Drimnagh and Ballyfermot at a time when the country had very little. It is now extremely wealthy, but it cannot house its citizens, which is an absolute shame. While the Bill is not perfect, at least it tries to deal with some aspects of the ongoing crisis.

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