Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and Deputy Mattie McGrath for allowing me to speak. As I always do when I have an interest in a sector, I declare one on this occasion. As legislators, we must be careful regarding what we do in this House and the message we send out. Every person elected here has a duty of care to every citizen in country and to help and assist them when it comes to providing housing, whether that is private housing, social housing, social and affordable housing etc.

Each one of us has a responsibility to ensure people are not threatened with homelessness or being made homeless. People should have a right to dignity in their lives and have affordable accommodation. One thing that has been happening in recent years, however, and the Minister knows this, as he is level headed, is that thousands of people have been exiting the private rental market. When we talk about the private rental market, we should remember that the people involved are tax collectors. They pay tax at 52% to the Government. Substantial sums of money go to the Exchequer every year from those private rental businesses. Those people are involved in providing accommodation. It is an important part of the market because governments, past, present and future, will be unable and incapable of taking care of the housing market. I am not saying that in a smart way. It is just not possible.

It would be great and brilliant if the government of any country could provide all the required accommodation. If it cannot, however, people in the private sector must be involved. However, we have seen the people in that sector being demonised and accused of every type of thing. Like every sector in life, rogue people may not be doing their work properly. There are also, however, professional people doing that work in a professional way. They provide proper accommodation to proper standards at affordable rents and are undertaking a balancing act. They are borrowing money, providing accommodation, paying taxes at 52% and they have an onus of responsibility to the tenants, as we do as legislators. We must, however, be very careful not to scare those people out of the market because of the work we do here.

There are tens of thousands of them, and the vast majority of the properties coming up for sale that are rented at present do not go back onto the rental market. They are bought by people who use them for themselves. That is fine but it is reducing the availability of rental accommodation, which is continuously getting squeezed. These people are on to me and I am sure on to everyone else here about this.

We are dealing with two people here. For every tenant whose right to a home we are trying to protect, there is also the person who owns that property and who is only trying to do his or her best. Some politicians stand up in here continuously and try to make out that the people who are involved in this business are some type of evil criminals who are doing something wrong. There is nothing wrong with it and it is no different from operating a guest house, bed and breakfast, hotel or any other type of accommodation. These people are just business people, or they might be incidental landlords with one property they inherited or acquired over time. They are only trying to do their best so we have to be very careful about what we do.

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