Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach is facing an autumn of discontent in this country when it comes to his failure and that of successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments to address the housing crisis we face. This morning, the Raise the Roof coalition met to discuss dates for a major demonstration before the budget. The national housing and homelessness coalition has already set a date for a demonstration on the date of the reopening of the Dáil.

As a member of the budget scrutiny committee, I can tell the Taoiseach that my concern and the urgency of building those protests to demand public and affordable housing and protections for renters have been greatly strengthened by this morning's reports about the summer economic statement. We were due to meet the Minister for Finance tomorrow morning to discuss the summer economic statement. We are now not sure if that will happen because it is being reported there is a row in the Government about the amount of money that will be allocated for housing and debates about reducing deficits as against housing expenditure.

I want to be helpful. In fact, we have been very helpful over many years. I thought I would bring in our pre-budget submissions. I flicked through them. People Before Profit's submissions in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 called for €4 billion additional expenditure on housing. The ESRI is now calling for this precise figure. We also had the Raise the Roof demonstration at which time People Before Profit put a motion before this Dáil on behalf of that coalition, which was passed, calling for a doubling of the expenditure on public and affordable housing, in addition to controls on rents and action to be taken on vacant properties in this country.

We have set forward the demands. We have put forward figures year after year as to what should be spent on public and affordable housing and these figures are now being endorsed by the ESRI. The Government still fails to do it and if the reports are true, is still rowing about saying that is too much and we have a deficit problem. We have a much bigger problem. We have a dire housing and homelessness crisis.

There is a simple solution to this. We are spending in excess of €1 billion on housing assistance payments, HAPs, the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, and leasing arrangements. It is €1 billion down the drain and into the pockets of vulture funds, landlords, property investors and so on. That €1 billion is supporting 100,000 tenancies of people who are mostly in insecure HAPs, RAS or other leasing accommodation, which could be pulled from them by these vulture funds and landlords, at any time.

There is a simple solution. Invest the €4 billion per year we need to deliver 20,000 public and affordable houses every year for the next five years. We would save all that money, own the property at the end of it, people would have secure tenancies and homes and we would generate revenue for the State with the rental revenue coming back to us instead of into the pockets of landlords and vulture funds.

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