Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Broin and Sinn Féin for tabling the motion. I wish to respond to a couple of comments made by the Minister. He accused the Opposition of plucking from the sky figures of 10,000 direct build affordable homes on top of 10,000 social homes. However, during the general election campaign, the Minister stated he would deliver 10,000 social homes and 10,000 direct build affordable homes. You do not need to pluck those figures from the sky. You just need to look at what the Minister promised during the general election campaign. There has been no mention since then of those 10,000 affordable homes he promised. The House has a right to know where the plans for those affordable homes have gone.

As regards affordability, Deputy Duncan Smith made the very good point it is vital that affordability is linked to income and is not defined as a discount on full market price. It is disappointing the Government members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage recently voted down amendments in that regard.

On the issue of cost rental, I am dismayed by the recent comments of the Minister to the effect that he wants to put profit into the cost rental model. Doing so would push up rents. Effectively, we will not have cost rental if it is delivered on a for-profit basis. Cost rental needs to be done at scale. Schemes such as the direct build at Dun Emer in Lusk under the Ó Cualann model need to be done at scale throughout the country.

If the Government is serious with regard to Part V, it should end long-term leasing, which is exceptionally bad value for money. It effectively means the State pays off the mortgage on a home over 25 or 30 years, at which point the developer still owns the home.

The context for this motion is that rents in Ireland have gone up by 61.8% from 2010 to 2020. At the same time, the average increase across the European Union, according to Eurostat, was 14.9%. That is a staggering increase in rents. Rents on apartments in Dublin are now higher than in any other European capital city, again according to Eurostat. That has happened on the watch of this Government and the previous Fine Gael-led Governments. Rents are well in excess of what a mortgage would cost. According to the ESRI, before the pandemic hit, one in three households who were renting privately or approximately 70,000 households had insufficient income remaining after housing costs to meet minimum standards or living expenditure. Tenancies in the private rented sector in Ireland are much less secure than in most other northern European countries. Individuals and families are under huge pressure to pay unaffordable rents, all the while not knowing when their tenancy might come to an end.

It is in this context that the Government is turning housing into an investment opportunity for vulture funds. There were reports recently of 112 new homes in Dublin 15 being sold off to a global investment company at Bay Meadows, Hollystown. This comes days after phases 2, 3 and 4 at Mullen Park, Maynooth were sold off to the same global investment fund. A few weeks ago, we had reports of 435 apartments in Ashtown, Dublin 15 being sold off to a foreign investment company based in Germany. According to the Construction Industry Federation, in 2019, 95% of new build apartments were sold to institutions, leaving just 5% for everyone else.

The favourable tax treatment whereby these investment funds pay virtually no tax encourages them to come into Ireland to buy up housing. This means individuals and families who are renting cannot compete with these multimillion euro funds and are trapped into renting for years to come. An entire generation is being locked out of home ownership and forced to pay high rent to these investment funds. It is worth nothing that in Germany these real estate investment trusts have been banned from buying up homes and apartments. We should look at similar measures here. Home ownership should not be for the privileged few.

The price of a house or apartment is now being set at the rate of return for an investor on their rental income over a 40- or 50-year period, instead of the ability to pay a mortgage over 25 to 30 years. Thousands of individuals and families who are renting and pinning their hopes and dreams on being able to buy a home are having that dashed by these global investment funds.

There is a link between rent increases and people going into homelessness. From 2014 onwards, as rents increased dramatically, we saw a sharp increase in the number of people exiting the private sector straight into homelessness. There are more than 8,000 people living in emergency accommodation who have lost their homes. We know from research that most people who have become homeless had their last stable home in the private rented sector. There is a direct link between these rents and people entering emergency accommodation.

We should be tackling the high cost of renting and bringing in protections for renters to bring us in line with most other European countries. It is welcome that the Minister says he will address that. I hope he brings forward that legislation soon and that it brings us in line with other European countries. It is important we do everything we can to prevent people losing their homes and going into emergency accommodation out of the private rented sector because of insufficient protections and because rent levels are so high. We should also look at measures they have in other countries, such as no evictions into homelessness, which they have in Poland. In Germany, for example, statutory services are notified when someone is being evicted from the private rented sector to avoid that.

On improving things for renters generally in the sector, we need to introduce a nationwide ban on rent increases and we need to introduce debt resolution and mediation schemes so when difficulties arise there is support for landlords and tenants in trying to resolve them. Most landlords own one home or property and do not necessarily have the skills to manage this. They need support in these situations.

When we look at renting, the conditions renters face and the way renters looking to buy are pushed out of that by global investment funds, we have to ask what sort of Ireland we want to create. When I raised these issues affecting renters about international investment funds with the Tánaiste less than two weeks ago in this Chamber, he said I was being ideological. Is it ideological to think most people should be able to buy their own home, that rents should be set at levels people can afford or that the housing needs of people and families should come ahead of the needs of global investment funds? Is it ideological to think a young child should not be eating her dinner on the side of the street, that there is no justification in this day and age for a housing system which forces more than 8,000 people into emergency accommodation or that renters should not live in the constant fear of eviction and losing their home? If it is ideological to believe people should have access to the housing and shelter they and their families need, to rents that are affordable, to secure tenancies and to homes that are affordable to purchase and within reach, then I wholeheartedly support that ideology.

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