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

-----responsibility for increased homelessness on any vulnerable groups.

In the last 12 months, we have seen the number of children living in emergency accommodation increase by 30%. Behind these numbers are individuals and families who are struggling to maintain some semblance of normality and routine. They are doing their best to keep up the school routine for their children, despite living miles away from school in emergency accommodation. They are living miles away from jobs and in emergency accommodation where they do not feel safe.

Of course, we should have the same standards for all providers of emergency accommodation, whether these providers are not-for-profit or private. We should have HIQA inspections to ensure that proper standards are in place. The shocking figures relating to the increase in homelessness in the last 12 months show not only a Government that is failing to stem the rising tide of homelessness, house price increases and rents; they also show a Government whose housing policies are failing. To see an example of that, we need to look no further than how the Government is failing to miss its targets for building social, affordable and cost-rental homes.

In 2021, we were promised 9,000 direct-build social homes by the Government. Instead, the figure that was delivered was in the region of 5,000. Most of these were turnkey purchases. There were just 1,726 direct builds. We were promised just 350 cost rental homes, only 65 of which were tenanted and fully delivered last year. We were promised thousands of affordable homes through various initiatives last year and zero were delivered.

We are seeing build-to-rent becoming the dominant supply of new housing, especially in Dublin. Some 82% of all residential schemes that had been applied for, or that were granted planning permission, according to analysis carried out with the executive of Dublin City Council in 2020, were build-to-rent schemes.

Despite this, the Planning Regulator is telling Dublin City Council it must drop its plans to curtail build to rent as this conflicts with national policy. Let us be very clear, under this Government, build to rent and investment funds are dominating and controlling the supply of new homes to the detriment of new and affordable supply for individuals. This has been borne out by the analysis done by Mr. Mel Reynolds and Dr. Lorcan Sirr, which shows the amount of new and affordable homes available for individual purchase fell last year and was at its lowest level in years at under 6,000. This is what is happening under this Government.

We are seeing a growing number of people stuck with renting who would like to be able to afford to buy their own homes. We are seeing house prices about to reach record levels, surpassing their Celtic tiger peak. Home ownership levels are in free fall under this Government and home ownership among adults at prime working age between 25 to 54 has collapsed, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office. Since 2012, we have seen wages grow by 23% while house prices have increased by 77%. In fact, since the 1980s, average house prices have increased by 230% in real terms after adjusting for inflation. The average age of a person who leaves home in Ireland is now 28. If we go back to the early 1990s, two thirds of people aged 28 owned their own homes.

Renters cannot continue to pay more and more. We have some of the highest rents in the European Union that are a major cost to individuals and families and also have a significant economic cost. We need a radical increase in the supply of cost rental and affordable homes to meet the housing needs of people as well as a ban on rent increases and improvements in security of tenure for renters.

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