Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The recent rental sector survey report for 2020 by the Residential Tenancies Board found that affordability is a significant issue for tenants

More than half of the surveyed tenants are spending more than 30% of their income on rent and 64% of those are in Dublin. Needless to say, I support anyone who is at risk of homelessness following an eviction notice. We need to try to prevent their entry into emergency accommodation.

Rights of tenants are not fully addressed in legislation. A tenant is left very vulnerable when there are issues in the property they are renting. They are afraid to draw the landlord onto them in case they decide to sell the property and they become homeless. The local authorities need to move faster to ensure works are carried out when there is a problem with a rental house. I recently came across an example where a tenant found 22 items wrong with the house they were in. The landlord said they did not have the money to deal with it and the tenant was left high and dry. The choice was to stay in the house or to get out. The landlord could either sell the house or know there were plenty of other people who wanted to rent the house no matter what condition it was in.

As much goodwill as the Minister might have to help people who are homeless, his Government has been the cause of increasing costs for people living in a house. At a time of Covid crisis and at a time of a national crisis for fuel, the Government has used a percentage model on fuel which means that every person in a house that does not have proper upgraded heating systems, such as air-to-water heat pumps, solar panels and underfloor heating, are left heating their houses with oil or solid fuel. The Government's answer to that was to increase the taxes on all those fuels. The Government has increased the taxes for a household with one car by €30 a week. For a household with two cars, the Government has increased it by €60. In a home heated by solid fuel, the Government has taken an extra €20 on the cost of coal, bales of briquettes or whatever they are using. For a house with oil heating, the Government has increased fuel costs by €30 per week.

Is it any wonder that people are going cold and people are homeless? They pay excessive rents for poor accommodation, which means they need to heat the houses. What does the Government do? It increases the taxes at a time the most vulnerable need its help. I have said this in this House on more than one occasion: we all have a green agenda and we all want to save the planet. However, in a time of crisis, it is up to the Government to protect the people who need our help. We did it after the arrival of Covid when things could be changed overnight and we helped to protect people. The Minister's outlook is completely wrong in helping people; they are in homeless accommodation.

I have been involved in construction all my life and I am still self-employed. The cost of materials to build houses or retrofit houses has increased by 47%.

I am not a landlord, but I know many tenants and I know many landlords. I know some very good landlords and some very good tenants. I also know many bad landlords and many bad tenants. We have that in all walks of life. I have seen people who have got into mortgage arrears. They may have been unsuccessful in getting funding to try to keep their house and have to sell the house. These people end up in the rental market usually with a local landlord who would look after them. However, there are also vulture funds and big business, which at every turn are increasing rents. If they can establish that someone else might pay more rent, they will try to push the tenant out. This is a very serious situation.

The Minister can help many people who are paying excessive rents in poor accommodation. They can even be helped through fuel. At a time when Europe asked Ireland to reduce taxes, the Government increased them. As I said earlier today, the Government is taking €5.6 billion in extra taxes it is charging on fuel. That includes home heating oil, coal, briquettes and fuel that goes into every vehicle. Yesterday, I met farmers who were protesting at the gate over how difficult it was for their generation to survive. The Government is going to make them homeless with the way it is carrying on. It has lost all grip with reality. It does not understand what it is like for people who do not have infrastructure.

Whereas the Government might not be able to help people to get accommodation in certain areas, it can help people to hold onto the accommodation they have until something else becomes available to them by freezing the tax at a set price. It is like a tracker mortgage whereby the Government sets the tax it is going to take from different sections for 12 months. That means everyone knows exactly what they have in their hand when it comes to their being able to afford the rent. In the same way as people trying to pay their mortgages, they can then set down exactly how much money they have in their hand to try to keep their family safe so that they do not become homeless. That is what the Government can do for people who have to travel to work in a car because of no infrastructure due to the failure of this Government and previous governments to look after people who live where there is no infrastructure. Covid has highlighted the lack of infrastructure throughout the country.

The Minister could help by proposing that Government stop using the percentage model and lock in our taxes. I accept it needs to raise tax to pay for services; we understand that. However, this is a time of crisis. The quickest way for the Government to provide relief to people is to reduce the tax on fuel - the extra tax on fuel. The Government should go back to its 2020 model where it was taking 81 cent per litre; it is now taking €1. That is 19 cent multiplied by 2 million cars, 40,000 heavy goods vehicles, 338,000 light goods vehicles and 71,000 tractors. The Government can make a direct impact on people's purses and they can use it to keep them warm in a house that is in poor repair until they can get something better, but it refuses to do that.

There are many ways to try to help the homeless. There are many ways to try to stop people becoming homeless. That is one way the Government can have a direct impact. By giving people €100 towards an electricity bill, if they are relying on electricity to heat their home and the heat going out through the window, it is €170 million of their own money the Government is giving back to the taxpayer when it is taking in €5.6 billion in extra taxes since 2020. It is in the Minister's hands.

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