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

The number one issue that comes up in my constituency office is housing. It has been non-stop. The recent Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill proposed by the Social Democrats was largely adopted by Government and some of the issues facing renters, including notice periods and enforcement of the 4% limit in rent pressure zones, were taken on board. While the 4% measure was much needed at the time, rents were already way too high and unaffordable when it was adopted. I am seeing more and more people having to top up the housing assistance payment, which is way below market rents. It is a significant problem. If the rent cannot be increased because the property is in a 4% rent pressure zone, invariably we see the landlord saying he is selling. Almost daily, people are coming in to me with a copy of an eviction notice and an affidavit saying the house they are renting is for sale. There is something quite dramatic happening at the moment.

We cannot talk about rents without recognising the massive problems that the HAP scheme has created. I understand the value of people being able to go to work.

It is preferable to its predecessor which tied people into a poverty trap. It is certainly not the solution which is always going to be to build. Some of us came forward with proposals in 2015 to use the European Investment Bank for such purposes. The Government, however, was slow to take that on board. It was said there was no money at the time but that was not true. There was money. It was a case of doing the things needed to access that money. Those of us in the commuter belt could see the problem. In my area, in a counter-cyclical manner, Intel hired 4,500 people. While it was very welcome at the time of the downturn, it was obvious from that what was going to happen. Some of us drew attention to those problems when the Labour Party held various Ministries. Ultimately, we can tinker around the edges but it is important we do what can be done. The key point is that we are not going to solve this problem unless we start to build. We should stop codding ourselves about the figures which we saw today. We want to see real houses in real places into which people can move. The local authorities have an obligation to do that.

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