Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I admire the fact that the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, who is not present in the Chamber shows a little humility in his approach to this matter. He consistently says the measures he has introduced are not perfect and need to be added to. However, I take issue with what he considers to be better and what he would like to add to the current regime. For the moment, I advise him to study a document, Locked out of the Market VII, which has been produced in recent days by Simon Communities. It is worth reading because it illustrates clearly the gap between what is being paid to recipients of housing assistance payment and the rents the market is demanding, particularly in bigger cities like Dublin and Cork. As other Deputies said, on a daily basis we are dealing with families that are extremely stressed out because they are about to be evicted by landlords who are selling their properties and do not want housing assistance payments. There is a real problem with the strategy of controlling rents and driving everybody into the private rental market.

I would like to mention an example of the behaviour of IRES REIT, which was mentioned by Deputy Gino Kenny. In a recent briefing note to his clients Goodbody analyst Colm Lauder noted that the high asking rent at an IRES REIT development in south Dublin "reflects the quality of product and service [but] is also an effort to overcome the 4%-per-annum rent review cap by starting at a rent that is very much at the top end of the market". According to the company's website, apartments at the development in question will be available from early July, with prices starting from €1,925 per month for one-bedroom properties and increasing to €2,750 for three-bedroom units. This is the world in which we are living. If we continue to say the problem is supply, while doing nothing about soaring rents in the State, those who are in a position to provide the supply needed will do what IRES REIT is doing in south Dublin by starting at the very top end of the market. In fact, this behaviour is pushing rents up further and there are no mechanisms or measures in situto control it.

Although the Bill is modest, as has been said, it is one of a suite of measures aimed at alleviating the farce of rising rents. It deliberately plays on the precedent set in the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Acts - the FEMPI legislation - which we will be discussing next week. The FEMPI legislation was designed to overcome the criticism that it would be unconstitutional to go after the private property of public servants, specifically their pensions. According to the Government, the financial emergency is long since over. This measure has been designed to address the housing emergency which has not yet peaked by bringing rents back to 2011 levels.

I would like to deal with the argument that this proposal interferes with the free market. I recently participated in a radio discussion with the Minister and Mr. Tom Parlon of the Construction Industry Federation. I asked Mr. Parlon how much profit builders needed to make in order that they would get out of bed each morning and build. At first he would not answer that question - the Minister was very quick to attempt to defend the Construction Industry Federation - but he eventually conceded that it would not be worthwhile for builders to start building unless they were making 7.5% profit. They would have to wait until they could obtain such a yield. If public sector workers were to lodge a pay claim in the morning for a pay rise of 7.5% and they went on strike in the way builders have gone on strike, the Government would be screaming blue murder at them. The idea that we cannot interfere with the market is an utter farce. We are incentivising landlords by offering REITs tax breaks on their profits and incentivising developers by giving them land for nothing, offering them loans at special rates, giving them tax breaks and throwing funds at them. We are interfering with the market to favour landlords and developers at the expense of tenants and those who are desperate to attain housing.

I ask Deputies to excuse my voice. I have had a bad chest infection.

The housing crisis has worsened in the past few years. Over 100,000 families have joined the housing waiting list and thousands more are homeless. If the market is all that great a God, why has it put people in worse circumstances than they have ever been in before? Although Fianna Fáil was clearly involved in winding down the delivery of social housing, its representatives have, rightly, made the point that the Fine Gael-Labour Party coalition Government was the first to cut it out altogether by failing to build any social or public housing. That is at the heart of the problem. I absolutely believe in interfering with the market. The Bill will interfere with it, not in favour of those who make vast profits but in favour of those who need a nest, a roof over their heads and a safe place for their children in which to put their heads down at night. It is not as if housing is a luxury or an extra gift in life. It is absolutely essential for every family in the country. It would be truly ignorant of the Government to write off the Bill on the basis that it would be unconstitutional to interfere with the market. Such an idea is truly offensive to the thousands of families that are in dire need of housing. We will get no return on our investment by favouring and pampering the Construction Industry Federation and private landlords. We will pay out millions of euro in housing assistance payments in the coming years, but at no stage will the State own any of the properties involved or get a return on the rent payments made. Instead, we will be giving public money to the private sector. In other words, it will be socialism for the very wealthy and capitalism for the homeless and the poor.

My argument is that in a housing emergency such as this, it is the duty of the Dáil to interfere with the market. The true blues of Fine Gael cannot afford to stand back and say they would never interfere with the private market. I suggest they have a duty to interfere with it. If they do not, rents will rocket upwards and upwards as supply comes on stream. The IRES REIT development in south Dublin is an example. If the Minister of State and his colleagues read the documents, they will be unable to deny that all the evidence points in that direction. It should not and cannot be left to the market to meet the basic right to shelter. Landlords, developers and builders cannot be allowed to undermine the lives of real people and tenants as they make their profits. At least the Bill is trying to bring some balance into the relationship, although it will not deal fully with the crisis.

The Minister has acknowledged humbly that he does not have all of the solutions.

7 o’clock

Just as he said his solutions are not perfect, neither are we saying that this Bill is perfect. It is one of a suite of measures that must be taken, and it will bring some balance to the relationship until we deal fully with the crisis and allow tenants more security and landlords to be restricted in how they can raise rents.

The vast majority of workers in this country have not had a pay rise since 2011. The average industrial wage has gone up by 3% but rents have gone up by 66%. I ask the Minister of State to square that circle and tell people that it is okay not to interfere with the rental market. At least we are attempting to do something to bring a sense of equality and justice into their lives.

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