Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Ríordáin and the Labour Party for tabling this motion on another aspect of the housing issue which we, as public representatives, deal with on a regular basis. One of the things that I come across regularly is the issue of security for tenants in the private rented sector. As a consequence of getting a notice to leave, we are in the situation in respect of homelessness. I have that even in a rural constituency, particularly in the southern part of the constituency in Roscommon, Monksland in Athlone and Ballinasloe, where if someone gets notice that they have to leave, trying to get any alternative accommodation is next nigh to impossible.

I have suggested in the past and put it to the Minister now that we should look to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, where there has been a very successful tenancy scheme in place which has transformed that sector over the past 15 years. If it is good enough in the agricultural sector, it definitely should be explored in the housing sector. Back in the 1990s, the vast majority of farm and land leases were for 11 months. Today, approximately half of all leases of agricultural land are of five years' duration or longer, some of them up to 15 years. In agriculture, the taxation system has been reformed to incentivise long-term leasing of land for the public good. Surely the same case can be made in respect of the private rented sector. I am not talking about big landlords that have already exploited the system in this country, I am talking about landlords with one or maybe two homes. Many of the these individuals are accidental landlords. There could be an incentive put in place for them whereby they would lease the home to a family for five, ten or 15 years and there would be a built-in incentive. It would provide security of tenure for the family that is renting and a guaranteed income for the accidental landlord. It could transform the sector, as has happened right across Europe where they have long-term leases for accommodation. That to which I refer does not happen in this country but it has happened in the agricultural sector. Surely we should be looking at it and exploring the opportunity for families.

The other thing I hope the Minister will look at is the reform of the fair deal or nursing home support scheme. The previous Government was committed to reforming this in the area of the capital assessment for agricultural land and for businesses. There is a significant anomaly that is preventing up to 9,000 homes coming onto the housing market. The current policy under the fair deal scheme effectively bans the renting out of 9,000 vacant homes belonging to older people who are in nursing homes, because they are hit with a treble penalty under the means test rules that apply. As a practising politician, the Minister knows well that under the social welfare system, the means test for a person's asset is either the market value of the property or the net income that is generated from that asset. However, under the fair deal scheme, 7.5% of the market value of the house is used but on top of that if the home is rented out by an older person, 80% of the income generated, exclusive of any costs such as maintenance or letting, is also included in the means analysis. It gets worse. If that rent goes through the older person's bank account, it is also considered capital on deposit and is calculated at a further 7.5%. If a vacant property is leased out by a family that is looking to put a roof over the heads of some of those homeless families we have across the country, the older person in the nursing home is facing a means assessment with a treble penalty put on it. Some of these properties have 1,000 Mbps high-speed broadband outside the door.

Down the road, some of those 9,000 properties to which I refer will eventually be sold but we are usually talking years by the time a property has gone through probate and everything else. The properties in question will require significant investment at that stage, yet they are houses that people were dwelling in up to a few weeks or months ago. As already stated, there are 9,000 such homes. At the moment, there are 14,000 people with property in private and public nursing homes under the fair deal scheme yet just 600 homes are being rented out. Surely there is something fundamentally wrong if only 600 of those homes are being rented out and the reason is that the system penalises it. I received a commitment from the Minister's predecessor that this anomaly would be addressed and I expect to see this reflected in the legislation when it comes forward.

Another issue which reflects the motion of the Labour Party and has been highlighted also by Deputy Pearse Doherty is the fact that the banks are running amok during Covid-19. They are exploiting their customers and the Central Bank is quite happy to sit on its hands and let this go on. A couple of weeks ago, AIB had to reverse its ban on mortgage approval for couples where one of them was in receipt of the wage subsidy. This is an issue that I took up directly with AIB because I was coming across constituents who had mortgage bans imposed on them.

In recent days, the issue of interest charges has arisen. A family with a €300,000 mortgage who take a six-month payment break will end up with an interest bill of €4,300. These are families looking for a payment break because they cannot meet the current mortgage repayments and struggling as a result of Covid, and we are putting a millstone around their necks of €4,300. The banks are trying to say they have no choice but to charge interest but we now know the Central Bank has eventually woken up about this on foot of clarification from the European authorities. The fundamental problem is that we need to split the Office of the Financial Regulator from the Central Bank. That was the case historically and it must be done again. We need a separate financial regulator. The Central Bank's role in consumer protection and consumer rights needs to be moved and the consumers' advocate must have teeth and be prepared to use them.

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