Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The housing crisis continues to escalate. The war in Ukraine and the resultant humanitarian crisis has highlighted the state of housing in Ireland yet again. We need to allow for thousands of refugees to come here to seek safety but our housing market is an absolute mess. By Easter weekend, we are expecting the number of arrivals to be between 26,000 and 32,000.

Fine Gael has been in government for more than ten years, with support from Fianna Fáil for six years, and nothing has improved. Things are getting worse in every aspect of housing, including for renters, people who want to buy a home, people on the housing waiting list and for those who are homeless. We also have an unacceptable number of vacant homes across the State at an estimated 90,000. Our rate of vacant properties is among the highest in the developed world and yet we are in the throes of a major housing emergency. That, in itself, speaks volumes.

There are 86 local authority-owned vacant dwellings in County Louth. This represents 86 families who could be housed, with thousands waiting on the housing list. The Government has had three vacant homes schemes but they have consistently failed to reach their targets. Sinn Féin has been calling for long time for a vacant property levy to disincentivise speculative vacancy and I am glad the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage is finally on board with this. It is morally wrong, in the middle of a housing crisis, that the Government allows property owners to leave homes sitting vacant. It is unbelievable that this practice has been allowed to continue for so long. Our concern, however, is that the Government may wait until budget 2023 to introduce this tax, which could mean that it will not come into practice for another year or possibly two. We need assurances that this tax will be introduced urgently and it must be punitive if it is to have any real impact. However, that will not solve the crisis. We need serious State involvement in the building of social and affordable homes for that to happen. Unfortunately the Government is still refusing to do that and the results of that intransigence are plain to see.

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