Dáil debates

Wednesday, 29 September 2021

Housing for All: Statements (Resumed)

 

2:27 pm

Photo of Gerald NashGerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am convinced that everything turns on housing, whether it relates to our society more generally or our economy. Precarious housing leads to precarious lives. It also leads to precarious health and a precarious economy. We hare having an open debate in this society and indeed, in this Parliament currently on the potential impact that an increase in corporation tax might have on our industrial strategy and our economic model. However, it is interesting to note that employers' organisations, such as IBEC and, indeed, the American Chamber of Commerce, are less concerned about the reality facing us regarding potential corporation tax increases than they are about the infrastructural and societal bottlenecks that we are experiencing in this country. Every discussion I have with an industrialist or an investor is not about corporation tax; it is about housing, transport or affordable childcare. We need to look at housing through an economic prism, as well as the prism of individual and societal needs.

I am acutely aware of the problems of housing supply and affordability, given the constituency that I represent and the direct experience I have, as we all have, of problems facing family members and friends in respect of accessing adequate and appropriate housing. My home town of Drogheda has experienced the biggest increase in the price of a standard three-bed semi-detached house over the past six months in this country. There has been a 13.6% increase in that time. Similarly, the Laytown and Bettystown areas of County Meath that I represent have experienced a 6% increase in house prices over the past three months. Overall, average house prices nationally have increased by €3,500 per month since the end of June. To put that into context, the average monthly income of the average worker is €3,400. That puts into context the challenge that is facing this Government and all of us in this House to address the acute housing situation that we have.

This did not dawn on us overnight. It has been a reality for quite some time. It is the result of an ideological failure and a failure of a Government that inherited a prosperous economy to invest in public and affordable housing and to allow the conditions to prevail to provide for the development of private housing for those who want to and wish to buy their own home since 2016. The fundamental flaw of Housing for All is that there is no definition whatsoever of "affordability".

That is an absolute cop-out. The Government is not willing to confront that elephant in the room.

An affordable housing plan does not merit the name if affordability is not actually defined. It was the advice of experts before the committee that affordability should be defined specifically as one third of the person's income. My colleague, Senator Rebecca Moynihan, the Labour Party’s housing spokesperson, put forward this expert definition as an amendment only for it to be rejected. I find that extraordinary. There are — I checked this earlier — 63 references to affordable housing in the 160-page Housing for All document but no definition. That is an indictment of the Government and its plan.

I want to turn to renters’ rights. We are aware that there remains a huge imbalance in power between renters and landlords. Last week, the Minister spoke favourably about the Labour Party’s Residential Tenancies (Tenants’ Rights) Bill but seemed to focus on issues related to the quality of rental accommodation, important as they are. The real important issue here, however, concerns price, cost and security of tenure. We did not get solid commitments on security of tenure. Ultimately, as the Minister of State knows, that is the bedrock on which renters’ rights are based. There is a huge deficiency in Housing for All in respect of the coverage of renters’ rights. Renting is now a reality for so many. I said to the Minister last week that if he is serious about building a bridge between where we are now and his own ambitions around Housing for All, he needs to provide security of tenure and improved affordability for the 400,000 who are currently renting and who will continue to rent, often in desperate conditions, over the coming period.

Even if we were to accept that the Minister’s ambition to have 33,000 homes built per year will be realised – I do not, for several reasons – there would be a challenge. There are no really clear timelines and there is an issue in this country, as we know, over access to and the availability of skilled tradespeople to carry out the works that are necessary. Inevitably, there would be a conflict between the demand for housebuilding and the demand for the retrofitting of homes. That is a genuine challenge the Government is going to have to face. Therefore, I repeat the call that all my Labour Party colleagues and I made last week, that is, for the Minister and the Department more generally not only to consider Deputy Bacik’s renters Bill but also to accept it and work with us in good faith to make it a reality. That would be greatly beneficial to our society. I hope this House could unite on it.

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