Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yet again we have a Private Members' motion on housing, or the lack thereof. I have no problem supporting motions or Bills on housing that put forward progressive arguments, strategies and proposals to go some way towards resolving the housing emergency we face. I agree with many parts of the Private Members' motion put forward by the Labour Party, but I want to ask a question which perhaps the Labour Party Deputies can address when they speak again. The second paragraph of the motion refers to "the duty of the Government and the State, as well as of everyone in society". I do not know who constitutes "everyone in society". Does that include the landlords, who provide some sort of housing for people, albeit insecure? I also note that there is no mention of security in the motion. To me, security of tenure is the crucial thing that people need.

Rebuilding Ireland is a mess. People on the average industrial wage find it practically impossible to rent or get a mortgage. I know a person working in this House who has three children and five grandchildren living at home with him and his wife. They are all working and cannot afford to buy or rent. It is a reality for many families that we come across. More than 10,000 people, nearly 4,000 of whom are children, are in emergency accommodation despite a Government commitment that in July 2017 there would be few or no families in emergency accommodation. The figure keeps rising even though some families are being housed through local authorities or HAP. No family should be evicted into homelessness. That message must come out of this debate.

Up to 50% of house builds are being bought with cash. Five out of ten purchases in the residential property market are made by cash buyers. These figures exclude purchases made by property funds and institutional investors such as Wilson Wright. The number of houses bought with cash payments is actually much higher. A couple of weeks ago the UN rapporteur noted that the massive US fund Blackstone has bought and sold rental properties here, including the Elysian Tower in Cork. Canadian-backed firm Ires REIT is the biggest landlord in Ireland, with more than 3,000 houses and apartments. The Los Angeles-based Kennedy Wilson is already a big landlord. The firm recently said it has billions of euro to buy more rental properties. US fund Starwood Capital has put a consortium together to spend €1 billion on rental properties.

If this continues, there will be very little housing stock left for anybody to buy even if they can afford to do so. Tenants will be paying very high rents. The Government must bring in legislation to deal with the phenomenon of vulture funds buying swathes of apartments and housing in this country. There is enough public land throughout the country to build 100,000 houses. We know that the European cost rental model presents an alternative.

I find it very hard to countenance the Labour Party attempting to wrap the red flag round itself, despite the fact that it is part of the problem and has been since 2011. From 2014 to 2016 the Labour Party presided over the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, as it then was. A massive 90% increase in homeless took place under its watch. In 2013, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan introduced the HAP as the only game in town.

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