Dáil debates

Tuesday, 10 December 2019

Rent Freeze (Fair Rent) Bill 2019: Second Stage [Private Members]

 

10:45 pm

Photo of Aengus Ó SnodaighAengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State was not present earlier when his colleague, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, had a go at me and accused me of being hypocritical for standing up for my community in Bluebell by opposing an inappropriate single planning application. I stand over my record of supporting appropriate housing, both social and private, regardless of height, density and so forth. I have met both the Minister and the Minister of State and encouraged them to build on specific key public lands and also to encourage builders in my area to develop them.

It was a distraction. At the end of the day, this is about one issue. If the Minister wants to have a debate about the market and whether housing is a market or a service, we can have that debate. Tonight, at long last, we are having a debate which reflects the emergency that has existed under this Government, the previous Government and the Government before that.

For three Governments, we have had a housing emergency in this city and elsewhere. The response of the Government is pathetic. In all of those years, rent has continued to go up and it is not just private rent. The rent the Government has been paying in HAP has increased in my area by 25% - so much for the rent pressure zones.

I do not know how many people the Minister of State deals with in his constituency office, day in, day out. In my office, the vast majority of cases I have dealt with in recent years are to do with housing. The worst cases of distress in my office, week in, week out, are families who have no alternative. They cannot get out of the hovels they are expected to pay thousands for because there is no alternative. There is no social housing being built or not enough, there is no private housing being built and there is nothing affordable, whether for rental or purchase. The Government should get its act together, get the houses built and get the rent freeze in place to allow the market to change, if we are going to depend on the market.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.