Dáil debates

Tuesday, 12 July 2022

Raise the Roof: Motion [Private Members]

 

8:50 pm

Photo of Sorca ClarkeSorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The figures speak for themselves and they are absolutely damning. During the Minister’s time in this Government, rents have increased by 15% and house prices by 22%. It is disgraceful. Homelessness has increased 19% in the lifetime of this shambolic Government, particularly considering there was a moratorium on evictions during lockdown.

For ordinary workers and families, having a decent home at a decent price is a goal that has been ripped from their lives because of decisions by others and policies of successive governments that failed them. The number of households living in rented accommodation has doubled in two decades. The number of these households that are purely private renters - those not paying rent to a local authority or receiving State supports - has tripled.

Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and others in government have deliberately created this change. In those 20 years, from 2001 to date, Government has spent over €12 billion in support of a private rental market, be it through the housing assistance payment, HAP, leasing, the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, or any of those schemes. Against the best interests of ordinary people, successive governments have reversed the successes of previous generations and put those successes out of the reach of this and future generations. An ESRI report states that between the 1950s and 1960s, fewer than 20% of people lived in private rental accommodation in their mid-30s. Of those born in the 1980s, it is now more than 40% living in private rented accommodation. That is mirroring the decline in home ownership. Government parties to date have supervised, supported and encouraged that 180 degree turn. I do not remember any election posters promising a return to lifelong renting or ending the possibility of home ownership, but that is what the Government has done. It is crystal clear that what people want and what the Government is providing has become completely polarised, and ordinary people are suffering horrific consequences.

Earlier today I heard the Taoiseach speak about the potential for landlords leaving the market. I want to ask a very specific question. Why is it that local authorities are now refusing homeless supports to families who abide by their notice to quit? Where a family leaves on the final date of their notice to quit, local authorities are refusing to provide them with homeless supports and are encouraging them to break that notice to quit and overhold, because if they do not, they will not get any help from anywhere.

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