Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank everybody who contributed to the debate, in particular Deputies Broughan and Jan O'Sullivan and Sinn Féin for supporting the Bill. I am not sure whether Fianna Fáil said it would support it.

I want to appeal, even at this late stage, to the Minister of State to get on his mobile phone and ask Fine Gael to reconsider not letting the Bill go to the next stage, which, as we know, would involve a committee scrutinising the Bill. It would not go directly to Committee Stage, because that is not happening with Private Members' Bills. It would be absolutely shameful if the Government did not at least allow this to go to a committee for scrutiny.

The Government seems to imply that it wants to address the same issues that we do. However, the reason given in its amendment to the motion for not letting the Bill go to the next stage is that it pre-empts the June review. The Bill would not be scrutinised before the June review. The Minister said on national radio, in response to the issues raised in Robin Hill, which I brought to public attention, that if there are loopholes we need to seriously review the legislation - I think they were his words. There are loopholes. We have clearly identified them in Robin Hill. They are not suggestions of loopholes; rather, they are loopholes that have been exposed in a case concerning one small part of Project Gem, which has just been sold to Cerberus. It is a €3 billion project and we know what is happening in one apartment block. Do we believe Cerberus is behaving differently in the rest of the project? Of course it is not. A policy is being pursued.

It is going beyond the 4% by loading on charges, such as a sign-on charge of €250 a month for new charges that were previously paid for through rent, plus bills that are double what one would pay on the open market for other energy providers. A makey-uppy company, Kaizen Energy, is apparently the heating and hot water provider, but the bills will run to €100 or €200 a month. A loophole has been identified and that is what is happening.

Properties are being hoarded. NAMA was doing it, incredibly, and now Cerberus is doing it. It is doing so because it knows rents are increasing and it can start at the top of the market, as Deputy Bríd Smith said. That is happening. It is carrying out refurbishments in order to get around the 4% increase for which legislation allows. That is happening. These loopholes exist. Cerberus has evicted up to ten tenants, which the Government allows, and will be able to do the same again in about six months' time. As others have said, there is no enforcement regime to stop it flagrantly breaking the law. The loopholes exist and it can get around the legislation but there is no enforcement even if it was playing by the rules. In any event, the rules are not robust enough to stop it bypassing them.

The Government has not addressed what it is going to do about these loopholes.

If this goes to scrutiny, the Government will have an opportunity. If it does not, there will be a delay in dealing with it. I appeal to the Government to allow us to address these loopholes, as this legislation does. If it wants to debate or amend it, that is fine and we are open to that discussion. To prevent it happening, however, is a disgraceful abdication of responsibility in the face of things that are happening now. This is not speculative. It is happening now.

If the Government will not allow this to progress, it should tell me what I am to tell the tenants who are being evicted by Cerberus. I want to know. I have written to the Minister, as have they. What is the Government going to do for them? What is it going to do about the fact that Cerberus is bypassing its legislation? Is it going to do anything? It has not given me an answer in anything the Minister of State has said. This Bill would prevent that from happening. It is that simple. All the areas in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford, etc. would be declared fair rent zones and this would not be possible. Cerberus would not be allowed to evict people on the basis of sale except in totally exceptional circumstances where it would have to prove to the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, that the accommodation was needed for its own family. Cerberus does not have a family in Ireland. It is Mr. Steve Feinberg who is busy advising President Donald Trump on his mad policies. As such, we know those people will not be evicted under this legislation. If the Government is not going to accept it, what is it going to do to stop them being evicted and to stop the racketeering? If it does not let the Bill go through while offering no concrete alternative, the answer is "nothing". That is what is happening. I appeal to the Government not to do it.

This business of the slowing down of rent increases is ridiculous. Average rents have gone up by 60% since 2011. As the Minister of State pointed out, average rents were high even in 2011 at €1,100 and €1,200. That, by the way, is approximately the level of the rent support the Government is offering under the housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme. Even with our measures, which would reduce rents in these areas by approximately €500, it would only bring them to the Government's HAP limits and make those in some way viable. Even at that, it is €15,000 a year in rent. The Minister of State is saying we cannot do that. That figure of €15,000 is a hell of a lot but the current situation is that it is €31,000 per year for a two-bedroom apartment in Dublin city centre. Who can afford that? It is crazy stuff. The Minister of State has not addressed how he is going to bridge the gap between a €1,275 HAP limit and €2,660. How is he going to do it? If he does not, every person who approaches the local authority in emergency circumstances, as is happening, will be told to pack his or her bags for emergency hostel accommodation. That is what is happening. They are told to go out and look for HAP but it is just not there. As Deputy Coppinger said, the situation is now so bad that landlords think they can ask for sex in place of rent.

One of the young women at our press conference today, Celine, is facing eviction. She is overholding on a property rather than going homeless and knocking on the door of every empty building she sees to ask if there is any chance she could rent the property. She told me that at one she approached this week, the landlord said he might consider it if she gave him €3,000 up front. This is what is going on. What is the Government going to do about it? "Nothing" is the answer. Its legislation simply does not deal with this. Unless we deal with it, this thing will spiral out of control.

A statement was made about supply and worry about investors. I want to counter that. If we did this, it would actually drive these racketeers out of the market or force them to rent stuff they are currently hoarding in the expectation of increases. If they knew they could not increase rents because it would be pinned back to affordable levels and they could not evict tenants, it might force more supply into the market or drive the racketeers out of the market to allow the State to purchase properties, as Edward Honohan, the Master of the High Court, has been saying for the past year. He believes we can use compulsory purchase powers to get hold of the empty properties. There are 55,000 in Dublin. We have learned that these were hoarded by NAMA and are now being hoarded by the vulture funds. Let us drive these people out of the market and get hold of that property to rent it to those who need it. Let us stop the hoarding and landbanking that is going on. That is precisely what we need to do as opposed to what is currently happening, which is the exploitation of the market.

The Minister of State thinks that if we get down on our knees and give subventions to these people, the supply will eventually come onto the market to deal with this. Is he honestly telling me that even if that supply comes on board, they will reduce rents to affordable levels? Does he think that rents will come down at any point to affordable levels? That is fantasy. It has never happened before. It took a major economic crisis for rents to go down. The idea that if supply rises, rents will come down to affordable levels is the worst type of fantasy. The Government should cop on.

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