Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Broin for tabling this Private Members' motion. I absolutely concur that the rental and housing crisis continue to spiral out of control. The new affordable housing Bill mentioned in the Minister's countermotion is a new plan with the same problems as previous plans. It regurgitates earlier plans, is developer led and investment fund led. There is a bit of tinkering around the edges in regard to cost-rental, which I welcome, although it depends on the basis of it in relation to salaries, council housing, shared equity, over which there is a big question mark, Part 5 and affordable housing at €450,000 in Dublin and €400,000 in Cork. How the Minister thinks that workers on an average industrial wage can afford housing on €450,000 is beyond me.

It will not work. In essence, it is the same old policy that is responsible for the crisis because it relies on the private sector. We have the ability to resolve this crisis. We did it before in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s when there was a massive council house building programme, which provided homes, affordable rents and security of tenure, including passing on tenancies to the next generation. People who lived in these council estates regarded their house as their home, a place to live in and raise a family. It makes me squirm when I hear estate agents, auctioneers and politicians talking about people getting a foot on the property ladder. The average working person is not thinking about rising up the property ladder but about an affordable home with security of tenure. The solution is for the State to play the leading role, not the market.

Several years ago, as I have said before, the architect Mr. Mel Reynolds estimated there was a sufficient amount of already-zoned public land to build 100,000 units. What is needed is a national State housing agency tasked with building those 100,000 units over a ten-year period. These units could be built using direct labour, with trade union pay and conditions and with the employment of apprentices. There is an unemployment rate of 60% among those between 18 and 24, if those currently on the PUP are included. This is another crisis in the making as we move out of the pandemic.

The public housing units could be built as a mix of affordable, cost-rental and traditional council housing to cater for those on the waiting list and those whose income exceeds the limit under which they would qualify for council housing. This would ensure mixed tenure, construction of good quality with an emphasis on carbon dioxide reduction, and good facilities, such as crèches, community facilities and public transport. This would be a truly radical solution and game-changer. If 40,000 units were built in the first five years, it would dramatically affect the housing market and help to lower rents in the private sector.

The Minister talks about supply for couples who wish to rear their families. In Dublin 12, in Drimnagh alone, there are three sites I wish to refer to. On the old Dulux site, Davitt Road, 265 units of one- and two-bedroom build-to-rent apartments are being built. There is an application before An Bord Pleanála concerning a nine-storey development with 200 one- and two-bedroom build-to-rent apartments. The same developer, Durkan, applied just last Friday for permission for another development, of four blocks of ten storeys, on the old Eason site at Brickfield Drive, with 282 one- and two-bedroom apartments. These are not for families to put down roots in. They are for transient, HAP and other forms of renters. Therefore, the Minister is not including in the legislation protections that allow for the building of family homes in which people can put down roots and protections than ensure community gain, including through crèches, necessary community services and infrastructure that is needed to cater for these developments.

Between the Luas stops at Suir Road Bridge and Bluebell, there is the potential to build 1,418 units for 4,500 people. Along with these, greater infrastructure, community facilities and services are needed. That has not been dealt with through legislation or the Minister's housing plan. The units, we are aware, will likely be HAP units, not family homes, as I said.

An international pension investor interested in the Player Wills and Bailey Gibson sites has got planning permission for the Bailey Gibson site. The process for the Player Wills site, involving build-to-rent and co-living units, is ongoing. There are to be over 1,000 one- and two-bedroom apartments. This is not planned housing. This is not building a planned city but building transient living facilities for certain parts of society. These apartments will cost a minimum of €2,000 to rent.

Let me expose another aspect of the bad planning the Minister is standing over. In Dublin 8, 15 student developments have been built. Applications are in and the rent is to be €2,000. Hotels are being built but we are not getting affordable housing within communities. The applications and builds are actually breaking and changing the fabric of the communities in the areas affected.

At Mullen Park, Maynooth, Round Hill Capital bought 135 of the 170 homes that were built. This is absolutely disgraceful. The members of the Government are the very ones who brought in the legislation to allow investment funds to avail of tax breaks without stamp duty, corporation tax or capital gains tax. Overnight that could be changed to stop what is happening or, as another Deputy said, give power back to the people in accessing homes.

The Minister made reference to the challenge of private landlords in regard to a cap on rents in Berlin, yet when we raise the fact that Germany has barred the investment trusts, it is ignored completely.

I have one last point. I am disappointed that the Minister has left because we are in very difficult circumstances. Consider the case of a young lady who rang me recently after a rent review with her landlord. She has been paying €1,653 for a one-bedroom apartment in the Abberley apartment block in Tallaght. It has been increased to €1,730.22. When the lady originally moved in, it was €1,500. She came from a position of homelessness. She is on a homeless HAP, which is capped at €990. The Government has brought in legislation to allow landlords in the rent zones to increase rents by 4% every couple of years, yet it has made no provision for the homeless HAP payment to be increased by 4% to match them. I am absolutely opposed to lining landlords' pockets but if the Government is to introduce legislation to allow them to increase rents by 4%, it must allow the tenants to avail of supports of the same nature. I raised this at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands this morning. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is now very concerned that we will see more people losing the homeless HAP and having to go back into homelessness. It made the point that there must be a plan for homelessness prevention. That is key. When the young lady who contacted me contacted the HAP section, she was told to renegotiate the top-up with her landlord or else avail of the opportunity to move to the ordinary HAP. It is impossible to get anything with one bedroom for €650 in Dublin at this moment. I want the Minister to say he will do something about this and prevent the tenant in question and others like her from seeing rent increases. The young lady has told me she cannot afford the increase, which is due on 6 June, and that she will be homeless again if it happens. People are facing stark experiences. The Government is responsible and should respond.

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