Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Healy and his colleagues for introducing this Private Members' Bill which provides the House with an important opportunity to discuss, yet again, the continuing and ever-deepening housing crisis. I support absolutely the spirit behind the Bill and while I may not agree with some of the mechanisms proposed in it, these are matters which can always be dealt with adequately on Committee Stage. I will go through those mechanisms one by one.

The Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, is right that declaring an emergency will not, in and of itself, do anything. However, if the Government declares an emergency officially and follows that declaration with emergency action, it could have a positive impact of the sort which, contrary to what the Minister said in his remarks earlier, we have not seen to date. Tackling vacant possession and notices to quit, which are the single greatest cause of family homelessness, is worth doing.

Of course, the Minister may say that vacant possession notices to quit are not evictions, but let him tell that to the families who week after week are effectively being evicted from their homes to end up in emergency accommodation. For such families, it feels like and, to all intents and purposes, is an eviction. It must be addressed. For a party to say that the Bill might incentivise people not to pay their rent or to engage in anti-social behaviour and damage their tenancy misses the point of what is being proposed by Deputy Healy. Such concerns could easily be dealt with on Committee Stage.

Rents are too high. I do not accept that a rent freeze while we are ramping up the delivery of cost rental and affordable purchase homes would be contrary to the Constitution because property rights are not absolute but, rather, limited by principles of social justice and the common good. I would like for that to be tested in the courts. When Part V was being introduced by Fianna Fáil many years ago, many people thought it unconstitutional. It was tested in the courts and - guess what - was found to be constitutional because it was rightly circumscribed by those limitations on property rights. An emergency rent freeze for two or three years would be treated in the same manner. Why not let it be tested in the courts?

On rent reductions, I do not necessarily agree with the mechanism proposed by Deputy Healy. One would end up in far more contractual legal difficulty if one tried to revise rents downwards. That is why Sinn Féin proposed a temporary three-year rent relief to refund renters to the value of approximately one month's rent, capped at €1,500. Such a measure would be a practical step to put money back in the pockets of struggling tenants and would not encounter the legal difficulties which may beset Deputy Healy's proposal. However, although he and I may disagree on the mechanism, we agree on the principle that not alone are rents too high, they must decrease.

On evictions of those in mortgage arrears, if people do not agree with the mechanism proposed in the Bill in that regard, that is fine, but let us find another way to deal with it. The difficulty is that in the private market properties which were in negative equity for a long time are now entering positive equity and it will no longer be problematic for banks to begin to ramp up voluntary surrenders under pressure or evictions. That issue must be addressed, but nothing that I have seen in recent Government policy will do so.

I listened very carefully to the MInister's remarks on the Bill from my office. I get the sense that he is on autopilot and that there is a series of remarks which he delivers when we deal with these issues, irrespective of the mounting evidence with which he is faced. He stated that the rent pressure zones are working but not working well enough. That is just not true. All of the evidence from the RTB and daft.ie indexes confirms that over a year after their introduction, they are not working. We told the Minister that they would create a two-tier rental market and we were right. We told him the exemptions were too lenient and would allow landlords to hike up rents and we were right. When we debated this issue with the Minister of State, Deputy English, he put forward the same arguments used by the Minister today, namely, that we must find a balance between landlords and tenants and avoid unintended consequences. However, not only is the Government screwing tenants, but 9,000 rental properties have been lost to the rental market since the Government put this rental strategy in place. It is not even doing right by landlords, let alone tenants. At some point, it must realise that renters cannot cope and that it must bring forward new solutions to deal with the matter.

I welcome that the Government will bring forward legislation to increase the policing powers of the RTB and we will work with it in that regard. However, the RTB will not be able to tackle the crisis by itself.

On rising homelessness, Deputy Healy and I tabled the Focus Ireland amendment to the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act two years ago but it was blocked by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. In spite of that Act, hundreds continue to become homeless because of vacant possession notices to quit. When we bring forward legislation in that regard on Second Stage in December, I hope Fianna Fáil has a change of heart and supports us. If the Minister disagrees with the wording of our Bill, I urge him to suggest amendments and support us. If we continue to allow families to be forced into homelessness because of vacant possession notices to quit, things will get worse.

The central problem is not Deputy Healy's Bill but, rather, Rebuilding Ireland, which is the housing policy of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Until that changes, this crisis will get worse. Perhaps if we started to realise that, we might get ourselves out of the hole created by those two parties.

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