Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

First, I want to respond to some of the comments that have been made. There is a problem with some politicians and some public representatives opposing housing. There could be other instances, but I am only aware of one where councillors voted to de-zone land that was earmarked and needed for social housing. We all know that it is needed, because of the crisis we are in and because of the huge increases in homelessness. There was a 22% increase in homelessness in the last year. There was a 30% increase in the number of children who are homeless in the last 12 months. I am only aware of one instance, which happened recently in South Dublin. A thin majority of councillors voted to de-zone residentially-zoned land that was earmarked specifically for social housing. It was needed for social housing. It would have provided 100 social homes. I call on the Minister and on every Minister to call on their Government councillors in south Dublin, from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, who voted to de-zone these residential lands that had been earmarked for social housing, to reverse that decision. They can do that as it has not yet bedded in as it is part of the draft development plan. The Government should show leadership in that by calling on its councillors to act in the right, responsible way and to re-zone those residential lands that were earmarked and needed for social housing. If that call was made publicly, it would be very useful. It would show good leadership on this.

I want to talk about the human cost of the rental crisis. I will give one example of how this is affecting people. One of the costs is that when renters are in terrible conditions they do not have the choice and ability to move out and find somewhere better to live because things are so constrained at the moment. Recently, my office has been helping one group of renters who have been in terrible conditions. They would like to move out and rent somewhere else if there was choice, affordability and availability. However, they cannot. This group of renters lives in a rental building with different units in it. It is owned by one landlord. They were living without hot water for three months over the winter, including over the Christmas period. They then, within their rights, took a case to the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, about this. The tenants do not have the address of the landlord, which creates a particular difficulty for the Residential Tenancies Board in following up on this. The Residential Tenancies Board says it is limited in what they it can do in trying to assert the tenants' rights. They ring the landlord because they have a phone number. However, as soon as the landlord realises who it is, the landlord hangs up. Because the tenants do not have the address of the landlord, the RTB says there is not a lot more it can do to proceed with the case.

It does not end there. In retaliation for the tenants starting this case with Residential Tenancies Board, the apparent landlord or their agent entered the property, shut off the electricity, ripped the curtains off the wall and destroyed the bathrooms to the extent that there is no functioning toilet or shower. This is all on video. The landlord also left a note to the tenants which confirmed that the electricity would be switched back on if they dropped their case with the Residential Tenancies Board. All of this is happening while the tenants are holding down stressful and demanding jobs in key industries where we need them to work. This is what they have to come home to every evening.

A common loophole that some of the most exploited tenants face is that they are not in possession of the landlord’s address and the RTB saying there is little it can do. I know from speaking to people with experience in Threshold that this has caused problems for many people. Some of the worst landlords and offenders are exploiting this loophole. Obviously, for more responsible landlords this will not be an issue. I call on the Minister to do what he can to shut down this legal loophole as quickly as possible so that tenants can no longer be exploited because of this. We should have zero tolerance for this gross exploitation of renters by a minority of landlords who are using this loophole to flout the law.

The Social Democrats is happy to support this motion. We thank Deputy Ó Broin for highlighting it. New rents have increased by 9% over the last 12 months on average. However, it has been far worse in some areas. One of the effects of this has been an increase in homelessness. I echo the comments that were made in the Chamber earlier today. When we are talking about homelessness and the cause of homelessness, we need to be very careful and responsible in the language that we use. I call on the Minister to reflect on the comments he made on radio during the weekend. He should be very careful not to be deflecting-----

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