Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last year the Government spent a staggering €695 million on rent subsidies to private landlords and property owners across four schemes administered by two Departments. The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection spent €175 million on the rent supplement scheme and the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government spent €100 million on long-term leased properties, €143 million on four year rental accommodation scheme leases and €276 million through the housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme. One might argue that this demonstrates the need and demand and is a symptom of the Government's more general failure in the housing area, but spending these very large sums does not represent good value for the taxpayer. To put it in perspective, the total budget allocation to local authorities to build and buy new homes last year was just over €560 million. That is almost 20% less than the sum paid to private landlords, which hardly makes sense.

While subsidies for low income households are an important part of any stable housing system, they should be short-term and declining in number and cost. Instead, the figures highlight the Government's over-reliance on the private rental sector to meet long-term housing need while at the same time underinvesting in social housing. We should also note the very insecure nature of rental accommodation for people now, due to the Government's negligence. These policies must be urgently reviewed and a plan must be put in place to reduce the number of subsidised tenancies in the private rental sector. This will only be achieved through a significant increase in the capital budget for local authorities and approved housing bodies to build and buy permanent social housing.

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