Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In the wise words of Maya Angelou, "The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned." Home ownership is the ultimate ambition of nearly every young working person. To think that home ownership rates have plummeted to the lowest ever level shows us in a really stark way how many people are locked out of the housing market. When we think of first-time buyers, we might think of young couples at the start of their lives together or of young professionals getting their first home. The age profile has crept up just as steadily as home ownership figures have plummeted. Behind those statistics, we have thousands of families, couples and single people living in uncertainty, locked out of the security of home ownership and dependent on others for the roof over their heads. I have met many people in their 50s, 60s, 70s and even their 80s who do not have their own home and live in fear from day to day of their rental home being taken from them. Every citizen should know that certainty and be able to aspire and work towards it, and not have the untold stress of an uncertain future. To these families, homelessness is never an abstract concept. It is a threat that hangs over their heads every day and every night as they put their children to bed in homes that are not their own. This mental burden, stress and struggle impacts negatively on couples, families and their children. It is not something that society can or ever should tolerate.

There is a critical imbalance between numbers looking for housing and the rental sector, with professionals who cannot buy their own home because many of them are paying up to 50% of their income in rent competing against those seeking rental accommodation with HAP, which pushes the rent up for everyone. What hope do third level students in the middle of that have? We need to take people out of this tortured equation, including the people who want to buy houses but are not in a position to do so because of affordability. We need to free up the rental market for those who are only in a position to rent. People who want to buy houses and who are financially in a position to do so should be given every assistance and help. I believe that this Bill, introduced by my colleague, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, will change things radically for first-time buyers by ring-fencing a certain number of homes in every new development and essentially taking the pressure off everyone looking for a home, whether it is a rented house or a home of their own.

We hear from local auctioneers in Kildare that single property investors come through their doors and sell their houses because of the taxation system and no more investors come after them. Cuckoo funds come in and try to take really big blocks. We hear about young couples who want to buy but who do not have a hope of saving 10% of the purchase price, let alone 20%. They are watching on from the sidelines as the chronic lack of new investors drives up rents. In Kildare at present, only 138 homes are available for rent. The average monthly rent in Kildare is 92% higher than a decade ago, at €1,350, and the rent for a one-bed apartment is €988. Would-be home buyers already face substantial competition in the rental market as they try to save a deposit to get on the property ladder. We have to protect them as best we can from unscrupulous market forces seeking to make a quick profit from the most fundamental of assets that a person can ever hope to possess, namely, a key to one's own front door. I remember the excitement and pride when I got the key to my front door. To think that so many people are denied that is appalling. I started with Maya Angelou and I will finish with one of our own poets, Padraic Colum:

O, to have a little house!

To own the hearth and stool and all!

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