Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. I want to touch on three particular topics. One is the rainy day fund. The Minister might be able to enlighten us on how we are actually going to access those funds. We know that under the fiscal rules we are unable to do so. We know that because we got the information from a freedom of information request to the Department of Finance. That outlines the circumstances in which we could access the rainy day fund. We cannot access it to address the housing crisis, the health crisis or any other crisis. We can access it to bail out banks, deal with immigration or deal with terrorism. That is the information contained in the response to the freedom of information request. Perhaps the Minister might be able to explain why we are putting €1.5 billion and €500 million into a rainy day fund which we will not be able to access?

My second point is the VAT rate on the hospitality sector. I agree with the VAT rate being increased to 13.5% for the hotel sector. As a Deputy from Cork who comes up here every week trying to find a hotel room, I know the prices have doubled in the last number of months. There is no doubt that the hotel sector in the capital is booming but outside of the capital, it may be a different story. Unfortunately, there cannot be two VAT rates. I can understand the reason for the 13.5% rate. What I do not understand is why we are extending that to other areas within the hospitality sector. I was talking to the owner of a small business in my constituency this morning and he said that the increase to 13.5% is going to cost him an extra €22,500 next year. That is money that he was hoping to use to employ additional staff to expand his business but that is now on the back burner. Extending the 13.5% rate to small cafes and restaurants was a retrograde step.

The final area I want to touch on is housing. I cannot understand the Government's housing policy. I am baffled by it. The Government gave a tax break to landlords at a time when rents in this State are at their highest. Landlords are making more money now from their rental incomes than they have ever done in the history of the State. They are making more now than even in the boom times in the mid 2000s. What does the Government do? It gives landlords a tax break so they can make even more money. The people who needed the break were the renters. According to the Government, it has given a tax break to landlords to try to keep them in the system so they will continue renting. It will not, however, give a tax break to renters to keep them in their homes.

I said a couple of weeks ago that the largest number of cases coming into my office concern landlords trying to get around the rent pressure zone regulations. They are doing that in a number of ways. Landlords are handing letters to tenants informing them that they are proposing to sell their properties or that they are going to carry out major refurbishment works within three months of the tenants vacating the properties. Those tenants are being kicked out and, in many cases, they are becoming homeless because it is impossible to find alternative rental accommodation in Cork. That is particularly the case within the HAP limits. There are very few properties, if any, that will come under the limits. The landlords are getting vacant possession. They are not then carrying out any refurbishment works, they are not moving back in themselves and they do not have family members moving back in. They are re-letting the property in the space of two or three months at an astronomical price and they are getting it.

I have said before that we need to close that loophole. If the Government is serious about dealing with the number of people becoming homeless, then that is a loophole it needs to close because landlords will continue to exploit until it does so. Nobody should be evicted into homelessness. If a landlord genuinely wants to refurbishment his or her property or needs vacant possession of the property because he or she, or a family member, is moving back in, then there has to be somebody with the responsibility to ensure the family vacating the property does not end up in a family hub or a hotel room. That person must ensure the family is housed properly. If the Government does not start addressing that, it will never get on top of the number of people who are homeless. As the Minister said, the Government could take 5,000 people out of homelessness next year, but we will see if that happens. There will, however, be more than that going into the system. Those loopholes need to be closed if the Government is serious.

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