Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Jan O'Sullivan for putting together this motion on behalf of the Labour Party, which fairly reflects our housing policy at this time. The time for a State-led approach to housing is long overdue and, unfortunately, this Government has driven us further towards a market-led approach. That has been a disaster. The shift in Government policy in 2016 towards a landlord-led solution to the housing crisis has served to deepen the crisis further and add needless complexity to a situation that was already very complicated.

In late 2014 and 2015, as the economy began to improve, we were able to secure funding for investment in the building of local authority homes. It was a start and was only part of the solution, but we did make a start. In my constituency of Dublin Fingal, a number of social housing schemes came off the shelf and went into development in places like Lusk, Balbriggan, Balrothery and Ballyboughal. It was encouraging, but it was not to last. Unfortunately, since 2016, the focus has shifted to the landlord-led approach we see now. Some of the projects that got out the gate, so to speak, in 2014 and 2015 have been completed in Fingal. Some are still under construction but not too many have got the go-ahead since 2016.

This shift to a landlord and developer-led solutions to the housing crisis has worsened the housing and homeless crisis immeasurably. We are now in a position in which there is no hope for so many. I refer to families in hotels, families split up, the hidden homeless still living with parents, crammed into box rooms or getting by due to the generosity of friends. It is scandalous. They are all trying to navigate a complex administrative procedure which, in my own case of Fingal, can see them having to shuttle between Blanchardstown and Dublin city homeless services and filling out endless forms only to receive a phone number at the end of it for self-accommodation. That is demoralising and soul destroying for those people.

Single homeless men have been thrown to the wolves due to absurd administration rules laid down by the Dublin Region Homeless Executive. They cannot avail of bed and breakfast accommodation and they cannot self-accommodate. The housing assistance payment, HAP, rates available to single people are nowhere near adequate, even if a place can be found. Single people are forced into city centre hostels, which are sometimes dangerous, or, even worse, they are forced to take to the streets. It is an abhorrent state of affairs.

There is also inertia in terms of recognising the changing environment of the housing crisis. In particular, that is the case for people who find themselves marginally over the income thresholds to qualify for social housing support, as other Deputies mentioned. As it stands, the income threshold level at which an applicant may qualify for social housing in Fingal is set at €35,000 per annum for a single person. Beyond that, depending on family size, the threshold varies, yet for an average family of two adults and two children, the level currently sits at €38,500 per annum. In cases whereby a household contains three adults and four children, the threshold stands at its highest - €42,000. These limits were established in 2011 and have not changed since. The income threshold as it stands is simply too low and has led to more problems being created than are solved. Furthermore, the working family payment, WFP, is reckoned as part of the household income assessment. We have one arm of the State recognising that a family does not have enough to live on and therefore qualifies for WFP while another arm of the State is saying that, as a result of that payment, the family ought to be able to provide accommodation for itself. That is nonsense and must be addressed and resolved urgently.

Many families in the Fingal area who have been on the housing list for in excess of seven years have now been removed from that same list due to being a couple of hundred euro over the existing threshold. That is an unacceptable situation which is causing great distress for families who have been waiting patiently for many years to be offered housing. A situation whereby a person may have to refuse a promotion or overtime to ensure they do not rise slightly above the threshold is in complete contrast to the kind of employment innovation the Government should be promoting.

I was told last July in the Dáil that:

As part of the broader [social housing reform] agenda, a review of income eligibility for social housing supports has commenced. The Housing Agency is carrying out the detailed statistical work [on behalf of the Department]. I expect the results of this review to be available for publication [later in the summer].

Despite the publication of these statistics with the Summary of Social Housing Assessments 2018, no change has been implemented yet. Is it the case that the Government is holding out on increasing the threshold to avoid making more people eligible for HAP? I hope that is not the case. I am aware the work on the review is done, so let us publish it and issue the circular to local authorities with immediate effect.

The Government has failed to explain adequately the implications of the influx of large private equity funds into the housing market. The sale of 118 two, three and four bedroom properties in Balbriggan and Donabate by Glenveagh Properties to private investment fund Ires REIT, at an average price of €323,728 per property, will take first-time buyers out of an already squeezed market. That organisation is the largest rental company in the State and this will inevitably push the price of houses up in the midst of a housing crisis while also pushing the already extortionate rental prices up even further. I imagine these properties will not be rented at an affordable level. They will be put on the market at the current market value rents which are boiling hot. It is another example of what happens when the market is given a free rein on housing. I congratulate my colleague and council candidate in Donabate-Portrane, Corina Johnston, on raising the issue last week, which was followed by others.

Last week, we had a presentation in Dublin on the Vienna housing model. It was very interesting and we include it in our motion. The Vienna model delivers large-scale public housing for long-term and secure rent through a number of vehicles, including private developers. The result is that large swathes of the population rent their homes from public authorities, and people from all walks of life, at all skill levels and wage levels, unskilled workers and professionals, understand the need for a communitarian approach to housing in which rents are affordable and security is provided. We are so far away from that under the Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Government arrangement that it seems like a utopian dream. This Government could not even continue with the beginnings of traditional social housing builds which we got off the ground at the back end of the previous Government. Its loaves and fishes approach to hoping the increased demand will be met with existing supply has led to the shocking statistic of more than 10,000 people in homelessness. That is the equivalent of the entire population of Cavan town, Ballina or Skerries without a home. That is shocking, and it is only getting worse. This is at a time when rents have soared to unaffordable levels for many. The major split that is occurring in our society is less one of class or income and more one of security, that is, those who have security of tenure and those who do not.

I acknowledge the positive contributions by Members from Fianna Fáil, the Green Party, Solidarity-People Before Profit and the Rural Independent Group. Unfortunately, Deputies Joan Collins and Catherine Connolly have left the Chamber, but I note the usual bitterness of these people towards the Labour Party, which somehow clouds their judgment.

See this speech in context