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

I thank Deputy Ó Broin and Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. It brings into stark focus some of the issues relating to the housing sector. It is important that we try and deal with these issues individually and comprehensively. I will focus on two of them.

The Government and the Opposition, public representatives across the country and community representatives are all in this together. We are all in this together except, that is, the providers of student accommodation. It is not just those who provide student accommodation on a private basis - some of the universities are also not in it with everyone else.

They have turned their backs on many students across the country who have paid substantial deposits for accommodation and have been told they are not getting their money back even though they cannot utilise the accommodation because of the Covid-19 restrictions that are in place. There was an appalling example involving the University of Limerick, which had to be dragged kicking and screaming to refund the accommodation costs to its students before the summer. It eventually, begrudgingly, paid over that money.

Quite a number of private providers refused point blank to refund money to students. They were not in it together with those students. They came cap in hand to the Government for restart grants, access to the wage subsidy scheme and pandemic unemployment payment for their employees because they had a drop in income as a result of there being no student or summer rental owing to the lack of tourism during the summer. I find it immoral that the Government paid them and that they, in turn, did not pay the students.

We are in a similar situation again. I have a representation from a constituent, a young man who paid a first instalment of €3,500 for his accommodation, whose course will be provided online this semester. That private provider has pocketed the money. These private providers are not only availing of financial supports at the moment but also of tax incentives. Tax relief is being claimed by approximately 200 student accommodation providers across the country. In 2017, 246 providers claimed relief from the Revenue Commissioners. They got tax relief from the State and taxpayers across the country to build student accommodation in the first place. Some of them even had the sites handed to them. Yet, when they are asked by the Minister for Education and Skills, the Government and representatives of the people of this country to give students a break, they were not in it together with the rest of us. They quickly turned their backs on those students. There is now an onus on the Government. These providers have refused point blank, after repeated requests from Government, to refund students. They should not be eligible, under any circumstances, for Covid-19 supports. We should look at a clawback of any tax incentives that they have got when they are not prepared to stand together with the people of Ireland.

I raise the issue of the churning of housing. I represent a bizarre constituency, the most rural one in the country. We have ample vacant housing in parts of my constituency. There are housing estates with tumbleweed going through them. In other parts of my constituency, we have a serious housing supply issue and a housing crisis. If a constituent comes to me having been given notice to leave their house in Roscommon town, Ballinsaloe or Monksland in Athlone, an absolute dread comes over me and them because there is no accommodation available at any price of which they can avail. This churning of accommodation is forcing families unnecessarily into homelessness.

I find it frustrating that we have security of tenure in this country for cows in fields but not for children in homes. The Acting Chairman, Deputy Durkan, knows well that there is a measure in place within the agricultural sector that provides a tax incentive for the long-term leasing of farmland but there is no similar structure for housing. In the 1990s, the vast majority of farmland in this country was leased on an 11-month basis. The argument was made at the time that farmers could not plan for the future on an 11-month lease. The Government of the day brought in a tax allowance to incentivise farmers who were leasing land to do it on a five-year basis. Additional incentives were subsequently brought in for ten and up to 15 years. As a result of that, more than 50% of all land that is being leased in this country today is leased on a long-term basis. That provides security for the farmer who is leasing the land because they know they have it for a period of time at a certain rate and they can plan into the future. While we are prepared to put structures in place for farmers to plan the management of cattle and farmland into the future, we are refusing point-blank to do the same for children and families by guaranteeing them a home and roof over their heads.

I am not talking about bringing in an incentive for large-scale landlords. They have done very well from incentives that have been put in place - far too well, to be honest. I am talking about accidental landlords who own one, possibly two, homes. We should provide them with encouragement to enter a five, ten or 15-year lease with a family to provide some level of security for them. The reality is that some families are not going to be in a position to buy a house themselves. They will not be in a position, in the foreseeable future, to get a local authority house because, with the best will and construction programme in the world, it will take a period of time before those houses are available. The least we should be able to do is to guarantee those families a roof over their heads this year, next year and the year after that. It happens all over continental Europe. It happens for farms in Ireland so why can it not happen to provide roofs over the heads of children? We must ensure that this churning of rental property becomes a thing of the past. It is probably the biggest vehicle causing homelessness of families today.

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