Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to raise with the Taoiseach the issue of the housing lists and homelessness in Dublin Bay north. My constituency has the longest housing list in the country and some of the worst homelessness statistics, bigger I believe than the whole of Fingal and south Dublin. I highlight the fact that from 2015 to 2017 neither Fingal nor Dublin city delivered anything significant. There were totals of one or two houses being built in a year. That is ludicrous.

The Minister has said he is worried. He should be worried about his job and the future of this Government, because this will be a huge issue in the forthcoming general election. There does not seem to be any reason the Government is not declaring a housing emergency. As part of that it could look specifically at Dublin because, looking at the figures, it is striking how profoundly Dublin is affected. Some 13,029 out of the 17,039 families who are homeless are based in Dublin. Some 18,046 adults are homeless. Some 2,801 of the total of 3,755 children are from Dublin as well. It seems that there is a profound argument for perhaps having a Dublin housing executive under some kind of dynamic leadership. I have always supported having a mayor for Dublin because we have not had the dynamic leadership at local level that we need to address these profound issues.

It is shameful that 488 children were made homeless in one month. That is a net figure. We know others have been diverted away from homelessness; some have been housed, most likely in the private rental market through HAP. Media reports state that an extra 488 children "became" homeless, but of course the reality is that those children and their families were made homeless. I am not sure what happens at the Minister's information clinics, but in those that I conduct, virtually everybody I meet who is seeking a home is being evicted. These people are being put out of their homes. That is the reality. I do not know from where this fantasy that Conor Skehan and other people have mentioned came. It is not the reality I face. This weekend I will hear from people who have been evicted by greedy landlords, as a result of the housing mindset that Fine Gael personifies via its support of landlords and developers.

I do not know how many more times I and my colleagues on this side of the House can implore the Government to declare a housing emergency and to use emergency measures to compulsory purchase order and compulsory lease order vacant properties, to build urgently on local authority land and to reduce rents to affordable levels.

In other words, cap rents and follow the example of some continental administrations in the European Union.

Whether we pursue cost rental or another model, we need a massive programme of public building. It is simple economics. We know that developers and landowners are withholding supply to push prices up. We know that because of the lack of affordable rental properties, many are living in dangerous and overcrowded accommodation. The rental market has become so competitive that there is little hope of people on lower incomes or in receipt of State housing supports acquiring such property.

The Minister has left. He is the kind of guy who knows the situation. He is not a fool. He can see that there is very little housing available in the market for less than €175,000. If someone is earning a minium wage and has an annual salary of €20,000 to €25,000 per year, how does the Government expect him or her be able to get a deposit together? With the loan-to-value ratio set at 3.5 times people's salaries, they will still need to have substantial savings. As I already noted, the Minister seems like a smart individual. I fail to understand how he cannot see that there is no affordable supply, and that most normal working families on lower incomes do not have a ghost of a chance of getting into the affordable housing market. Houses that are available for less than €200,000 on daft.ie and other sites are being targeted by greedy, profit-hungry landlords and speculators. They know they can have low mortgage repayments for those prices and charge double or triple that amount in rent. Neither the Minister, his predecessor nor anyone else has addressed the escalation of rents during the past ten years. The bottom line is that 3,755 children are homeless. The Minister is responsible. He should take dramatic action, especially across the four Dublin counties, to sort this out.

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