Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am not quite speaking to an empty Dáil, but anyway I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion, which contains a number of proposals to tackle the cost of living in the context of institutional investors in the residential property market.

All of us in this House would agree that the provision of homes to buy and rent is beyond crisis point. This issue is not new. This crisis has been escalating year-on-year. It is not a crisis manufactured by any Opposition party. It is real crisis for families, individuals, young people and pensioners. It is a crisis that affects urban and rural areas alike.

Being able to call somewhere home is essential to ensure a sense of security that is fundamental to all of us as human beings. Being able to open, step through and close our front door behind us gives those of us in that position a real sense of belonging, a sense of place, the feeling that we are at home. The word "home" is so powerful and it means so much in so many different ways. As a person or family without a home, either one you own or rent with some decent level of certainty around the tenancy, you are just adrift. You have no anchor. All the other things we talk about in this place, whether it is employment, education or community are all irrelevant if you do not have a home. That is why we speak of a crisis.

At one time, this crisis was much more acute in the cities and urban areas. If you are a person without a home, however, it is acute no matter where you live.

Certainly, the numbers were greater. That is no longer the case. If we look at the facts, we can see that, excluding the cities, the average rent across the country in the last year stands at just over €1,100 per month, an increase of 11.9% on the previous year. In the west, in counties like Roscommon, Leitrim and Mayo, rents rose by 20% on a year-on-year basis, which is 8% more than the average. Indeed, four of the five largest annual increases in the country were in the western region in quarter 2 of 2021, with increases of 21% in Leitrim, 17% in Clare and Donegal and 50% in Sligo. That is for increases in the cost of renting a home but if we look at the cost of buying a home - house prices - what we see is that the move away from the larger urban centres has had a very significant impact. If we look at median house prices, the percentage change from 2019 to 2021 is 11% in Donegal, 16% in Leitrim, 8% in Sligo and 14% in Roscommon.

I could be giving statistics and figures all day long but that does not give a real picture of what it is like for people who are trying to buy a home. Like many others in this Chamber, I get emails and calls all of the time from people at the end of their tether because they cannot find a place to rent or to live. The Government tells us that the problem is one of supply, and there is a lot of truth in that. However, if we look at completions in the last three years, 2019, 2020 and 2021, we see that in the western region, the numbers are paltry, from just over 2,600 completions in 2019 to 2,758 in 2021. In my own county of Sligo, the completions were 118 in 2019 and 143 in 2021, a minuscule increase. I know we have Covid and that has obviously impacted on the number of completions but the Government tells us that this is a problem of supply. It is the Government and it has to find a solution to that.

Many of the proposals in this motion will help to start addressing the crisis that we are speaking of here. I want to focus in particular on one, the last proposal, which asks that the Government would: “provide additional capital funding to local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies to forward purchase such developments for the provision of social, affordable rental and affordable purchase homes, given some developments require forward purchase agreements to ensure their viability and delivery.” To me, this is a very important issue because the upfront costs of developing and building homes can be very significant. One of the things we could do, for example, is to look to the Housing Agency to fund the upfront costs and provide the mezzanine funding that is necessary to local authorities and to approved housing bodies. I also believe we should look to the same Housing Agency to lend money for what I would call genuine projects, for the building of homes where the outcome would ensure affordable homes, because there is no point in Government money fuelling an increase in the cost of homes. We have a Housing Agency that is managing the mica redress scheme. Why do we not task that agency with managing what I am speaking of here, that is, the upfront costs to local authorities and approved housing bodies, or to local builders and developers who will provide local homes in local areas, as well as local employment? That proposal perhaps needs some refinement but I think it is a very valuable one because it deals with the reality of building homes.

During Covid, we did a lot of good things. The Government did a lot of good things, for example, it guaranteed businesses. We guaranteed the banks during the crash but what we are talking about today is bread and butter stuff. My question is this: why can we not guarantee housing?

My final point again comes back to local authorities. We know that local authorities built houses 20 or, certainly, 30, 40 and 50 years ago. Unfortunately, because policy changes, some of the expertise has been lost and it will take time to get that back. However, there is still a lot that could be done, for example, with derelict homes in towns and villages. I know there are grants for individuals to perhaps do up these houses but why not resource local authorities to help to deliver local housing in this way?

See this speech in context