Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The housing crisis is a perfect storm. Not one element of the housing sector is functioning normally. While I accept that this makes it difficult to address the crisis, if anything, the scale of the crisis dictates that the Government must respond with the same focus on pragmatic solutions as it put into communicating the crisis.

Before referring to the private rented sector, I request again that the Government work with all those Deputies who are genuine in seeking solutions to address the housing crisis. I regret and condemn the recent communications campaign by the Government in which it stated the housing crisis is normal when compared with other countries such as the United Kingdom and some of our European Union partners. There is nothing normal about the housing nightmare that is shared by many people in Ireland, the UK and other EU member states. The lack of determination among many western governments has resulted in housing again becoming a major social need. That appalling housing provision has become widespread and normal does not allow the Government to spin its way out of its responsibility for fixing the crisis. If anything, the Minister and his counterparts in the UK and rest of Europe should work together to ensure European countries co-operate to ensure that all citizens have somewhere safe to call home. Rather than normalising the abject failure of western governments to respond, their priority should be to achieve this objective.

Tonight, we are discussing another broken element of housing, namely, the appalling conditions that prevail in some parts of the rented housing sector. I use the word "some" because it is important to acknowledge the significant number of landlords who are not only accidental and under severe strain but also responsible and good. The majority of them ensure their rental properties are maintained to a high standard, which makes good business and civic sense. Unfortunately, however, a number of landlords are using the scale of the housing crisis to make maximum profits at the expense of safety and human dignity. This is a scandal and I am pleased to note the House unanimously condemns those who would profit from human misery.

The Fianna Fáil Party has been warning about the lack of an adequate inspection regime since 2015. While I thank RTÉ for highlighting the disgraceful conditions people are being forced to endure, I regret that, once again, it has taken an in-depth focus by our colleagues in the media to elicit a response from the Government. As usual, somewhere in Government Buildings the crisis communications clock is ticking down on this debate in order that the media focus will move on. Sadly, this is the nature of modern politics and it diminishes citizens' belief in our ability to solve problems, which is a dangerous development.

Deputy Cowen and others in the Fianna Fáil Party have called for the implementation of a process that empowers local authorities to establish a simple, straightforward and workable inspectorate based on the successful NCT model. The pragmatic and responsible Government response would be to accept the motion as a priority, have the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government analyse it immediately and have legislation passed with Government support as quickly as possible. We, in the Fianna Fáil Party, do not want thanks but the implementation of a practical solution. While I hope this will happen, I am doubtful that it will. Instead, the Minister will probably thank us for our sincere contributions to the debate and indicate he is working on a solution that will be brought forward shortly. He will not accept that only 8% of almost 7,000 private rented properties in County Wicklow are inspected every year or that local authorities have been starved of resources and talent for many years. He will not give a commitment that the Government will ensure local government will be at the centre of delivering solutions to the housing crisis. The reason he will take such an approach is that the Government views the housing crisis as normal.

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