Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

It is fair to say that this country, and the Government, are capable of dealing with a crisis, as demonstrated during the recent storm. Through political will, and using various arms of the State, it was well managed. I refuse to believe that another crisis cannot be dealt with, and dealt with adequately. Hardly a week goes by that the issue of the housing and homelessness crisis is not discussed in this House. It is the response to that crisis that is at issue.

A test of any fair society is its capacity to house its people. We are here again this evening discussing this issue because despite all of the fancy words and so-called action plans, the main action is further entrenchment into the mindset of abdicating responsibility for housing to the private sector. In its current form, our housing sector has lost the concept of a home. It is fundamentally destabilising to society when we hear Government solutions to the crisis that are reliant on the private sector, such as the development of hubs. The Minister has sought to convince us that hubs are somehow desirable. We need to talk about homes, not hubs. If people cannot secure a home and put down roots, communities become transient and unstable. Society in general suffers. What sense of security do children growing up in emergency accommodation or hubs have? How can we blame them if they grow into dysfunctional youths? We are storing up very serious problems for the future.

The State has all but abdicated its duty to provide social housing in the numbers required, opting instead for its preferred outsourcing model and increasing reliance on the free market. We need a return to what it means to provide a home, not just property. Housing costs are soaring. Many working people have no choice but to seek higher wages to buy or rent a home. Disastrous policy decisions on housing have devastating knock-on effects in society for years and, perhaps, generations. Across our cities and towns tonight there are increasing numbers of people on the streets. It is embarrassing to walk down any of the main streets in this city and take stock of what one sees. Families are sleeping on the couches of friends and relatives, very often unsure of where they will be in a week or a month's time.

People are paying high proportions of their income on rent or mortgages and they are absolutely terrified of losing their homes. To purchase a modest home in Cork or Galway a person needs to be earning approximately six times the average wage. To buy a home in Dublin, one needs approximately nine times the average wage. As we know, average rents have spiralled over the past four years. It is clear that there is no security for people renting and that buying a home is increasingly becoming a pipe-dream for many, which is not acceptable. The concept of a home is a basic human right but it has been wilfully replaced by the property ladder or is seen as an investment opportunity. This problem dates back a couple of decades.

The current housing and homelessness crisis not only scars the social fabric of our country, it undermines our competitiveness and labour mobility. The Government has many shiny plans but progress is painfully slow. It is a case of implementation deficit. The delivery aspect of these plans, along with political will in terms of the public aspect of housing, is at issue. The Government must take immediate action to ensure long-term rent certainty. We have previously called for the use of the consumer price index in this regard but it is now too high to make that argument. We need to drive down the cost of housing and to bring homes within the reach of people on ordinary incomes. We need a strong building sector, for which we must reduce costs, including finance costs. This also requires doing things to scale such that building is more efficient and less expensive.

The Government must challenge the EU fiscal rules which limit its capacity to invest in housing and other capital projects. The rules are hamstringing and exacerbating the crisis. This must be viewed from the perspective of spending to save. Reducing the price of housing and building to scale makes it easier to service debts into the future. We also need special measures to help young couples who bought apartments during the boom and now find themselves stuck with children in unsuitable accommodation. I know of people who are living with children in a two-bedroom apartment on the second or third floor of an apartment block. People, including many young couples, who bought small apartments during the boom are still in negative equity. Some of them have become accidental landlords because they have moved out and are renting out their apartments and now find themselves having to deal with Revenue. Others, as I said, are living with children in unsuitably small one or two-bedroom apartments, which they did not buy with that intention in mind.

These home owners have been forgotten by Government. There was nothing in budget 2018 to assist them. Many are finding it difficult to service their existing mortgages or to keep up rent payments while at the same time trying to save the 20% deposit. They find themselves stuck, unable to buy family homes because they cannot compete in the over-heated housing market or against cash buyers. As an immediate response, we are calling for the Central Bank to carry out an impact assessment of the 20% deposit rule to see if it can be relaxed to enable this cohort of people to buy suitable family homes. This would free up the smaller type of accommodation that I understand is not the most attractive to build and it would allow people to move on when they need to do so. This cohort of people has not been considered. Any affordable housing model must factor in this group of people. This is a real problem, perhaps not for millions of people, but for a sizeable number of people.

The current constitutional framework is a profound obstacle to dealing with many of the problems in housing. Article 43 seeks to balance private property rights with the common good. Too often, the interpretation of that article means that the common good loses out. We either challenge this or we change it because it is not fulfilling what is provided for in the Constitution. The common good is supposed to be a central aspect of the right to private property. I have no problem with people having a desire and being enabled to buy property or a home but this provision is being used in a very negative way. This is not only happening regarding housing. When the rent caps were being introduced there was a degree of questioning as to whether or not it was constitutional. The same happened in regard to upward-only rent reviews. There are things that need to be challenged in this regard. We are in the midst of a devastating housing crisis. If the Constitution is an impediment, we need to either challenge it or change it.

Deputy Healy is right that there is not a Deputy in this House that does not have a degree of understanding of this crisis. Since I opened my constituency office this issue has been the number one issue raised with me by people. We all have a good understanding of the problem. It is the solution and the political will to deliver that solution that has been largely absent.

There has been an ideological problem in respect of the kinds of problems we are seeing coming forward. If the Government were to challenge the fiscal rules in this regard, it would likely be successful. It is certainly an impediment to the country developing. Increasingly, Members are hearing that those in the building and industrial sectors consider housing an impediment to recruiting staff and growing the workforce. There are many reasons this problem needs to be tacked but the mindset needs to change first. We must see housing as more than a person trying to get on the property ladder. The basic right to a home has to be at the heart of any housing policy.

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