Dáil debates

Thursday, 4 November 2021

Monitoring Adequate Housing in Ireland: Statements

 

4:10 pm

Photo of Aodhán Ó RíordáinAodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We welcome this opportunity to speak to this important report on an area of Irish life which has seen a huge level of public policy failure over many generations and possibly since the foundations of the State. I will speak to some of the key findings and challenges it presents us all with and some of the solutions. The Minister of State has spent some of his allotted time on the report, but there are key findings about lone parents who are significantly affected and of whom less than 25% reported home ownership, compared with 70% of the total population.

Ethnic minority groups are at a significantly higher risk of overcrowding. More than 35% of Asian-Irish, 39% of Travellers and 40% of Black-Black Irish live in overcrowded accommodation, compared with 6% of the total population. Some 48% of migrants live in the private rental sector, compared with 9% of those born in Ireland. Some 29% of persons living with a disability experience housing quality issues when compared with the 21% of those without a disability. The continuing problem of homelessness highlights a disadvantaged section of the community for which the most basic measure of adequate housing, as envisaged under international human rights agreements, is not being met.

The key challenges which the report outlines are Covid and homelessness. Use of private rental accommodation has been outlined in the previous points, but rents are rising faster than wages. Despite the introduction of rent pressure zones in late 2016, rents have increased by almost 40% in Dublin and 20% elsewhere. Rental costs have risen at a faster rate than mean earnings in Dublin and elsewhere. In 2020, mean monthly rent in Ireland was estimated to be 31% of mean monthly earnings.

In terms of what this means and what we need to address, it is a fundamental problem because, in the Irish context, a hugely disproportionate amount of families' and individuals' income is spent on accommodation. It is totally disproportionate to the rest of Europe. Their ability to live good and love- and fun-filled lives is being strangled because they are ploughing all this money into accommodation for their rent or mortgage repayments. We need a national rent freeze.

The discussion has been well-articulated in this House and it is not unconstitutional, despite what the Minister of State's colleagues might say. Private renters and those renting from local authorities are at a significantly higher rates of poverty than owner occupiers. This highlights the need for greater protections for tenants and why so many of those entering homelessness are coming from the private rental sector. Inadequate housing and poor housing quality is inevitably associated with higher mortality rates.

The figures clearly show that we need to reformulate our approach to housing policies to reflect that there are many people who live alone, many people who never marry, or who are lone parents. We must not keep calculating affordability on the basis of joint incomes. I grew up in an Ireland where it was not unusual for a mortgage to be able to be obtained by a family that had one earner. Clearly, this has led to the current situation, where you cannot effectively get a mortgage unless you are part of a dual income household. It is clearly leading to detrimental outcomes for those who are living alone, both for affordability and housing quality. We have to grapple with that. That is a change in the relatively recent past.

We need more disaggregated data, particularly related to nationality and disability, as well as further research in order to ensure accurate representation. There must also be targeted data collection which goes further to ensure adequate representation from certain groups, including the Traveller and Roma communities. There is a strong case for a comprehensive national survey on housing adequacy and affordability. Unfortunately, a person's housing sometimes says more about their status in Irish life than any other facet of their life.

I will re-emphasise this point to the Minister of State. Our dysfunctional housing market and our dysfunctional housing history are making people desperately unhappy. If we did it differently, people in general will be leading much more fulfilling, much more love-filled and much more fun-filled lives. That is on all of us. The model which has been created is just not sustainable for those who want to live.

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