Dáil debates

Tuesday, 28 July 2020

Residential Tenancies and Valuation Bill 2020: Second Stage

 

11:55 am

Photo of Seán HaugheySeán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing my time with Deputies Niamh Smyth and Murnane O'Connor.

I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, on his appointment. He has certainly hit the ground running. Housing was a major issue in the general election and there is much work to be done, to say the least. I wish the Minister and the Minister of State every success in their endeavours for all our sakes.

I am happy to give the Bill a broad welcome. It freezes rents and allows for an eviction moratorium in respect of tenants affected by Covid-19 up to 10 January 2021. It is important that current protections be put on a sound legal basis, which is what the Bill proposes to do. It will also provide new long-term protections for tenants separate to the measures connected with Covid-19.

Concern has been expressed about the position of those renters who do not qualify for these new legal protections. Is it the case that these non-Covid cases, as it were, now face the possibility of having their rents increased? Any clarification from the Minister would be most welcome.

What is the position regarding the eviction of tenants engaged in anti-social behaviour? It is my understanding that, under the current arrangements, a tenant engaging in anti-social behaviour cannot be served with a notice of termination but must continue to pay rent and observe the other normal terms and conditions of his or her lease during the emergency period. What is the position under the Bill regarding the eviction of tenants who are clearly engaged in anti-social behaviour? I would welcome some clarification.

I will briefly mention the provisions under the strategic housing development, SHD, measures. The Minister told the Dáil last week that they would not be renewed after 31 December 2021. That is good. In my constituency, a number of planning permissions were given under those provisions for large-scale, high-density, multistorey, build-to-rent apartment developments. I have in mind places like Coolock village, Howth village, Clarehall and areas generally on the city's northern fringe. Sustainable development and local democracy were thrown out the window. New residential guidelines issued by the then Minister facilitated that. Development plans were overridden and the need for mixed tenure schemes was ignored. The sooner we get back to sustainable planning for housing, the better.

I wish to deal with the issue of affordable housing. The programme for Government places it at the heart of the housing system, which is as it should be. Sooner rather than later, we need to see the construction of affordable houses and the putting in place without delay of a practical and affordable housing scheme under which people know where they stand and can make applications.

In my area, there are 200 affordable houses planned for Oscar Traynor Road in Santry and 300 affordable houses planned for the former lands of the Oblate Fathers in Belcamp. These houses must still be constructed, but we need an affordable housing scheme under which people can apply to get them. The possibility of constructing housing on Oscar Traynor Road has been ongoing for years. It has been held up all over the place in the Department and Dublin City Council. There is talk of appointing a preferred bidder, but planning permission is still required for their construction. A housing scheme for the site was first proposed in 1991. How long ago is that? Will the Minister and the Minister of State please get the lead out, pursue this particular scheme and remove any administrative blockage and bureaucracy that is preventing the houses' construction?

We need to get the cost rental scheme up and running. In my area, there are plans for 100 cost rental units at Cromcastle in Coolock.

I wish to address the issue of social housing. I welcome the commitment to build 50,000 new social housing units over the next five years. Our local authorities need to be central to this ambition. Do they have the capacity, resources and expertise to set about building and constructing social housing like we did down through the decades? Local authorities need to start building social housing again. The approved housing bodies, AHBs, are doing a good job and form part of the overall policy of providing social housing, but local authorities need to be front and centre in meeting this objective.

The Department needs to sanction proposed schemes much more quickly than it is doing currently. Local authorities submitting schemes to the Department for approval seem to face inordinate delays in getting sanction for them. I do not know what the problem is. There seem to be inordinate levels of bureaucracy and red tape. I know that the Minister dealt with this issue in opposition and is determined to cut out delays in sanctioning schemes because people are being left on waiting lists by such delays.

We need to get people off the housing assistance payment, HAP. I welcome the commitment in the programme for Government to reduce the reliance on HAP as a social housing solution. The HAP system has got out of control. Landlords are making significant profits and people do not really have security. If they are considered to be adequately housed under HAP, they go on a transfer list and that is the end of their social housing quests. We need to reduce the reliance on HAP and build social and affordable housing.

What is the position relating to local authorities buying up houses on the open market for social housing? I have significant concerns about this. Surely it freezes out young couples who are trying to buy houses as they cannot compete with local authorities. In this regard, I draw attention to the Call for Housing 2020 campaign, a document produced by the Department. It seems that a call has been made encouraging private homeowners to sell their houses to local authorities. Surely this will cause a problem. Surely we should build social housing rather than buying up private houses to use. Young people are being frozen out of the market and cannot afford compete for housing, dear enough as it is. There is, it seems, no affordable housing scheme in place. I would like clarification on that. I hope I have not misread the call for housing document. It is misguided. People should not be selling houses to local authorities. This call should not be put out. It might be part of the solution but I would not like it to be seen as the total solution. I would welcome the Minister's view on that.

Generally, I welcome the commitments on housing in the programme for Government. Housing was a huge issue in the general election and people expect results. The Minister has done a lot of work in his first month in office to get the ball rolling on the various issues. We must build social housing and fulfil the 50,000 unit commitment over the lifetime of the Government. We need to build affordable housing and put an affordable housing scheme in place. These extremely important measures must be undertaken without delay.

The Bill affords protections to renters and tenants during the Covid-19 emergency and sets out the criteria to be met to qualify for these protections. I worry about other renters who do not qualify for the Covid-19 protections. I hope sufficient protections are in place for them. Their case also needs to be heard.

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