Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Today the Society of St. Vincent de Paul launched a report entitled, Growing up in the Cold, which exposes the grim reality of thousands of families living in energy poverty. One in six households spends more than 10% of its income on heating and electricity.

Older and lone parents are particularly affected. Significantly, the report highlights that 42% of children living in the private rental sector experience energy poverty and 36% of children living in social housing have the same difficulties. The report clearly shows a relationship between poor-quality accommodation and energy poverty. The report states that 140,000 children are living in homes with leaks, damp and rot. One parent quoted in the report said:

There are six of us with two bedrooms, living room, kitchen and bathroom. We have one small heater, and we move it from room to room.

One small heater is a clear breach of minimum standards.

Two years ago, this House passed a Sinn Féin Private Members' motion on standards in the private rental sector. It called for an NCT-style certification system for private rented housing, adequate resourcing for local authorities to ensure meaningful inspection and enforcement and a review of penalties for non-compliant landlords. Two years on, what has changed? Last year, just 9% of private rental properties were inspected. Of these, 82% failed to meet minimum standards and less than half of these had their breaches resolved by year end. This is simply not good enough. The Government's failure to resource the enforcement of minimum standards is leaving tens of thousands of people, including thousands of children, living in the cold and its failure to properly fund the maintenance of council housing is leaving thousands of the State's tenants in unacceptable conditions. In light of the depressing findings in today's report, will the Government fully implement the proposals in the 2017 Sinn Féin motion, which was passed without opposition in the House, and actively consider implementing the seven recommendations in the Society of St. Vincent de Paul report published this morning?

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