Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would be embarrassed to read a statement like the Minister of State's to the Oireachtas because it was filled with so many factual inaccuracies. He has said that his Government is giving local authorities enough funding to allow 25% of private rental properties to be inspected every year. In 2019, the year before Covid, only 10% of rental properties were inspected. In fact, the percentage of properties inspected in most local authority areas was in the single digits. None of us knows whether the majority of properties are compliant because Government is not funding local authorities to inspect them. At the same time as saying that Government is giving local authorities money to inspect 25% of such properties, the Minister of State is saying we cannot have a certification system similar to the national car test, NCT, because of the revenue implications. If 25% of properties were to be inspected every year, compliant properties could be provided with an NCT-style certificate. Why not charge the landlord €40 for that certificate? It would be valid for four years and have to be renewed every fifth year. That would make the system revenue neutral.

The Minister of State announced the homeless figures from last Friday as if they represented some kind of success. Only a few weeks ago, he voted to strip renters of the very protection that drove these numbers down, the ban on evictions. While it may take some months, many front-line homeless service workers are genuinely concerned numbers will continue to rise. The Minister of State has also said large institutional investors are not favoured, but the mom-and-pop landlords renting out one property whom he says he supports pay tax on rents collected at an effective rate of 40% while those institutional investors pay absolutely nothing. If that is not favouritism for big landlords, I do not know what is.

With respect to the Minister's response earlier in the debate, some of the country's most leading constitutional law experts are on the record as saying they believe a three-year ban on rent increases would be constitutionally sound. If I were the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, I would be willing to go all the way to the courts to fight for the right of renters not to have their rents further increased.

The Minister also repeated his criticism of Sinn Féin for wanting to deliver 20,000 public homes a year, comprising social housing and housing that is affordable both to rent and to purchase. The very same Minister, when campaigning for election, promised the same thing. He said 10,000 affordable homes would be delivered every year for the lifetime of the Government, but he is now saying that is not deliverable. Of course, that is exactly what Fianna Fáil does during elections. How would we deliver those homes? We would dramatically increase capital investment, set targets for local authorities and fast-track developments such as those at Oscar Traynor Road, St. Michael's Estate and Clonburris. We would also make more aggressive use of vacant properties, acquisitions and turnkey properties not only to ensure more social homes but to ensure homes working people can afford to rent or buy.

Unable to provide an adequate defence of his failures both during the term of the confidence and supply arrangement and while Minister, Deputy O'Brien deliberately misrepresented Sinn Féin's affordable housing policy to this House. Under our policy, affordable rents would be affordable at €700 to €900 per month rather than the €1,300 or €1,400 this Government is presenting. Likewise, our homes for affordable purchase would be priced at €230,000 or less. The Minister is wrong; people would actually own those houses. They would be able to do with them what they want and to transfer them to their children or grandchildren. The difference between our party and Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party is we want to create an ever-growing stock of permanently affordable homes to be bought and sold by working people on modest incomes. We do not want those homes to be affordable to the first purchaser but then end up in the private rental sector or in the unaffordable private market.

The motion before us today is very straightforward. It calls for a radical break in policy towards the private rental sector. A three-year ban on rent increases is urgently required and should be supported. A refundable tax credit which would put a month's rent back in every renter's pocket is essential to undo the damage of ten years of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil failure in the private rental sector. Crucially, it calls for a major investment in the direct delivery of affordable cost rental housing on the scale the Economic and Social Research Institute, the National Economic and Social Council and the Housing Agency have called for. We estimate this would equate to 4,000 affordable rental units as part of the 20,000 public homes to be delivered every year. We also need to ensure proper standards and security of tenure for renters. Everything I have heard today shows once again that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party cannot be trusted to stand by renters. Only the proposal Sinn Féin has put forward today to stand up for renters will tackle this rental crisis. The sooner this Government realises that, the better for us all.

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