Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:

“notes that:

— the Government is fully committed to tackling high rents and ensuring an increase in the supply of affordable high-quality accommodation for purchase or rent, including through continued significant capital investment;

— under Housing for All - a New Housing Plan for Ireland, the Government is providing an unprecedented level of capital investment in housing, a total of €20 billion until 2026;

— the Plan sets out the most ambitious programme of social and affordable housing delivery in the history of the State, with 90,000 social homes and 54,000 affordable homes to be provided by the end of 2030;

— the Government has already made significant changes in rent controls by restricting any rent increases in Rent Pressure Zones (RPZ) from exceeding any Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices inflation, which the Government recognise has increased in the short-term;

— as previously indicated, the Minister intends to bring forward urgent rental legislation in the coming weeks to introduce a cap on rent increases in RPZs, subject to Government approval;

— as set out in the Programme for Government: Our Shared Future, the Government is committed to legislating for tenancies of indefinite duration, and, subject to the Government’s approval, the Minister will do so shortly, to provide further security of tenure for tenants;

— 2022 will see record capital investment in housing of some €4 billion, through the Exchequer, the Land Development Agency (LDA) and the Housing Finance Agency;

— in 2022, over 11,800 new social homes will be delivered, including 9,000 new build homes, as well as 4,100 new affordable homes, including 2,550 affordable purchase and 1,580 cost rental homes;

— the Government will support 14,800 new households to have their housing needs met under the Housing Assistance Payment and the Rental Accommodation Scheme, as well as supporting almost 82,000 existing tenancies under these schemes;

— for the rental sector, the Government has targeted the delivery of 18,000 Cost Rental homes by local authorities, Approved Housing Bodies and the LDA by 2030 in order to provide long-term sustainable rental, and over 1,580 Cost Rental homes will be delivered in 2022;

— since 2020, the Government has increased funding by 22 per cent, and staff capacity by 13 for the Residential Tenancies Board to help further protect tenants, it also has stronger enforcement powers;

— funding of €6 million in 2020 and €10 million in 2021, an increase of 66 per cent, was provided to local authorities to inspect rental properties, and the strong legislative framework under which they currently operate has made a positive contribution to supporting the ongoing improvement of standards and to ensuring the availability of an increasingly high-quality stock of rental accommodation in Ireland;

— since August 2019, student specific accommodation is covered by the protection of the tenancy legislation;

— in relation to rental deposits, legislation passed in July restricts the level of upfront payments required of tenants, including students, to a total value not exceeding two months’ rent;

— the Government will support technological universities to develop purpose-built student accommodation through access to appropriate financing, and

— the Government already introduced five pieces of rental legislation to protect tenants during the Covid-19 emergency.”

I welcome the fact this motion has been tabled because it gives us an opportunity to debate the many areas of progress we are making and the policies we are putting forward in that regard. I do not doubt the sincerity of many of the speakers opposite. I am acutely aware of the difficulties among renters all across this country. I am also acutely aware solving the housing crisis is not something that is going to be done in a year or 18 months. It needs robust and real policies backed by real money. It needs a bit of honesty too, which is lacking from some of the contributors opposite.

This motion is a tweaked version of previous motions. We are all acutely aware rents have reached levels that put real families and real people under incredible pressure throughout the country but especially, though not exclusively, in our major cities and urban centres. We have seen that and this is not just a phenomenon in this country either. We see in Europe and also in America the effect of inflation as we come out of Covid. I have said on record a number of times that the rental market is indeed dysfunctional. I want to greatly improve it for almost 300,000 households and tenancies which exist in this country. However, we must recognise the fact that whether one likes it or not, we need a private rental market as well. We have had thousands of mom and pop landlords leave. We must look at some of the items in the Sinn Féin motion with respect to what intended or indeed unintended consequences they could actually have. I remind Deputies opposite - I see Deputy Mairéad Farrell is no longer with us and that is fine - that the Government and I have brought forward five different pieces of rental legislation in the period of time I have been Minister. Four of those Sinn Féin accepted and supported, which I welcome, including the one last July which I will deal with in a moment. When we linked rent increases to general inflation in RPZs it meant that if rents need to go up they could only do so in line with general inflation. However, when I brought forward this legislation - and this is where I would tell Deputy Ó Broin we need a bit of honesty - I said I would keep an eye on it and an overall cap under review because I also said I was aware of where inflation was going at the time. We brought forward the measures in July speedily and I said that at the time. We have a further rent Bill I am bringing forward in the autumn, which I also said during the summer will deal again with the issue of rent increases. I want to see that. In the coming weeks I am going to introduce tenancies of indefinite duration for the first time, via that Bill which I hope Sinn Féin will also support. I expect there will be support opposite, just as Sinn Féin has supported four of the five tenancy Bills I have brought forward on behalf of this Government.

We have also restricted the amount of upfront costs. I ask Deputies to look at the amendment I have moved which details the facts of what we have already done for renters in a short space of time. As part of that, we have restricted the upfront costs that can be sought at the commencement of a tenancy to a maximum of two months' rent, helping thousands of student renters and other renters who were previously expected to fork out deposits of upwards of €3,500 to €4,000. That has been stopped.

Perhaps most importantly, and something Sinn Féin wilfully ignores because it might not suit its sound bites or its Facebook and Twitter videos and all the set pieces it has brought forward here, is the fact that for the first time ever we have introduced cost rental and we have tenancies in place already. We will soon have many more of them. Others have talked about it but we have delivered it in the Affordable Housing Act, another Act Sinn Féin supported, for which I am grateful. These are all pieces of legislation I have brought forward on behalf of the Government, most of which Sinn Féin supported, and then its Deputies come in here and criticise them because it might suit their narrative. That is fine. Between now and the end of 2030 18,000 cost-rental homes will be delivered, including more than 1,500 next year. It goes without saying that increasing housing supply in this very space will ease affordability constraints, especially on renters. As the cost-rental sector grows, these consistent and affordable rents, which we want to see more of, which we have legislated for and for which we have, for the first time, a national cost-rental scheme in place, will have a moderating impact on the overall private rental market. As I mentioned, tenants already in place are availing of rents at approximately 50% below the market rates. I will be launching another scheme tomorrow where they are 40% below the market rates. That is what we intend to continue doing right into next year. We have published a plan with 213 different action points backed by more than €20 billion in real money for real actions that are going to make a real difference for real people.

Also in Housing for All is a commitment that legislation will be enacted to provide for minimum building energy ratings, BERs, in private rental properties. Again, this is legislation which I hope Members opposite will see their way to supporting at the appropriate time.

When I look at some of the measures on housing Sinn Féin Deputies have proposed, it seems that they are modern day snake oil salesmen. They have a cure for all of our ills and there are easy solutions to this. They say they will build 20,000 public homes next year and I continually ask where they will be, who is going to build them, how long it will take to build them, when they will be occupied and how Sinn Féin will pay for them. There are no answers forthcoming; just a figure of 20,000 that is pulled out of the sky. One thing Sinn Féin is clear on is that it will abolish the help to buy scheme which has helped nearly 23,000 families to own their own home. It also says that it will abandon long-term leasing immediately but does not say what that would mean. I have been extremely clear on behalf of this Government that I want to see an end to long-term leasing. I will bring it to an end but will do so in a targeted and managed way. Let us look at what Deputy Ó Broin is proposing.There are already 1,300 homes in the long-term lease pipeline for 2022, decreasing to 200 in 2025. We are showing a pathway out of this and there will be no leasing thereafter. These are real homes ready for real people. We cannot simply turn off that tap and cancel these homes, as Deputy Ó Broin would do. He would just scrap them. What does Sinn Féin say to the 1,300 families who will be in safe and secure social homes next year? Which homes would the party cancel? Would it abandon the 160 one-bedroom homes that will be leased next year for single homeless people?

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