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

I was just getting the Chair's title right.

Last week, I raised with the Taoiseach the UN special rapporteur on adequate housing's damning condemnation of the Government's record on housing. New research published in The Economic and Social Reviewfurther illustrates the points I raised last week and shows that many households and individuals are paying more than half of their incomes on rent. Those in the private rental sector, young and old, are being hit time and again with unbearable rental costs and hikes. All the while, the Taoiseach and the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, stand idly by.

For many people, owning a home is but a pipedream. In real terms, home ownership is beyond reach for an entire generation. Not only are houses unaffordable, but rents are at such a level that no one can put away a few quid to save for a deposit. Many of these people are working in good jobs and earn good salaries. They are up bright and early. They are people who, at any other time, would be well able to afford a decent home but are now under serious pressure, yet the Taoiseach does not seem to grasp that. Those who can ask their parents for the money for a deposit are few and far between. He should know that.

The housing system is broken, yet the Government's response is to stick with its plan even though that is failing spectacularly. Sticking with the plan is predicated on preserving the interests of landlords, not on giving renters a break, which ought to be the Government's first priority. On Monday, it was revealed that Cairn Homes was to sell 300 apartments in Dublin wholesale to a vulture fund, which, in turn, will charge exorbitant rents. This is playing out now.

Yesterday, the Tánaiste stated that the legislation relating to rent pressure zones is to be extended to the end of 2021, but that will not deal in any real way with the magnitude of the problem we face. We need real solutions, not piecemeal actions. We need more social homes, more private homes at affordable prices, more cost rental homes, tax relief for renters and real rent control. We also need legislation to prevent buy-to-let landlords seeking vacant possession; in other words, to prevent them from sending people into homelessness in order that they can sell their properties. That legislation will be before us and a vote will be taken on it tomorrow. I urge the Government to support it even though the Government and its friends in Fianna Fáil have previously opposed it. I am asking the Taoiseach to do this one right thing as a signal and as the beginning of a process of the Government getting to grips with the rental crisis, which affects approximately 1 million people across the State.

See this speech in context