Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Damascan conversion of the Government on issues that, before the Covid-19 crisis, were impossible and unconstitutional, such as a ban on evictions and a rent freeze. It is very welcome that these are being brought in now. I do not think anybody should be left with the impression that the housing system that we were operating in before we came into this desperate crisis was anything normal. There was nothing normal about it. In reality, the housing system that we had before the Covid-19 crisis was a disaster. It was life-threatening for many people who were the victims of it. People have died in our streets because of homelessness and people have suffered badly because of overcrowding and long waits on lists. These measures should be seen as the first steps in trying to utterly change the housing system that we have in the future.

The rent freezes are very welcome, but like other proposals on mortgages, it is not enough. If we simply store up the rents to be paid back in the future, then we are putting people into unsustainable debt. When Covid-19 is gone, they will face a crisis in their own lives, trying to meet that unsustainable debt.

We have tabled amendments to the Bill on these issues. We need an amnesty on rents and mortgages. For the next month or two, we should pretend that, in financial terms, this period never happened. Of course, we have to deal with it very seriously in health terms, but it needs to be treated as a period in history that just did not happen when it comes to paying rents, mortgages or utility bills. In that way, people will be able to deal with things in a much better and more sensible manner and we can return to a society in which people will be able to go back to work unhampered by deferred rents, utility bills, mortgage payments and so on. We cannot continue to enrich the real estate investment trusts, the banks, the vulture funds, and the property developers. We need to state that the days of megaprofits for the vulture funds and bankers are over and that the costs of a future recession after this crisis recedes will not be borne by ordinary people but by those who can afford to pay: the giant corporations, the vulture funds, and the bankers that have enriched themselves on the back of our housing system.

With regard to this specific Bill, we need clarity on the impact of some of the measures, especially with regard to the situation of some of the cohorts of people that have been mentioned. These include those living in digs and students who have been forced to leave accommodation and who are trying to get back their deposits. We are very fearful of what might happen to the Travelling community because, as the Minister of State knows, there are two categories of halting sites: those that are legal and those that are not. We need reassurance that there will not be any evictions of members of the Travelling community. We also need to be able to tell anybody, regardless of their type of lease or rental agreement, that they will not face eviction or be penalised.

I echo the calls made earlier for tougher action with regard to lenders, bankers, vulture funds and so on. It is not enough to have a gentleman's agreement or understanding and sympathy over tea. We do not need to hear that the situation is awful and that the banks are doing their bit, as the head of the banking system has said. The banks' bit is not enough because it turns out that their bit will give them more interest and profit in the long term at the cost of ordinary people. That must not be allowed to happen.

I was reading over the Government's action plan on the Covid-19 virus again and there are many references to direct provision, Travellers, the most vulnerable, the homeless, and people in emergency accommodation but we are still not clear on what actual steps have been taken. As we can see from the contributions made in the House, those in direct provision and those involved in the homeless sector are greatly worried that not enough is being done quickly enough. Tens of thousands of people are being put in real danger because of overcrowding and the inability of homeless people who have been put out of their accommodation and forced to hang around streets all day to isolate themselves. Not enough is being done quickly enough. It is in the interests of public health for this to happen. I suggest that the empty hotels littering the country be used to allow people to self-isolate in their own rooms. There is no point in having shining hotels - which is not intended as a reference to the scary film - littering the country in the middle of this health crisis.

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