Dáil debates

Tuesday, 4 October 2022

Housing for All Update: Statements

 

5:20 pm

Photo of Pa DalyPa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I spoke to the housing officer in Kerry a fortnight ago who told me that three families in Kerry are becoming homeless every week. That is three families who have, by and large, been in rented accommodation for the past ten, 12 or 15 years and now face going into one room in a homeless shelter before they can get somewhere else, if they can get somewhere else.

The housing crisis in Kerry is, similar to most of the country, at breaking point. We have sky-high rents. They were 15.4% higher in quarter 1 of this year compared with last year. Rents are 100% up on the lowest point since the crash. In Crystal Fountain, a former holiday home development in Tralee, the rent is €1,300 per month, which is what people would pay in a middle-class area of Leeds. Rents in new city centre, premium apartments in Deansgate in Manchester are €1,100. That is the level the rents in a rural town in the west of Ireland have reached.

There is little or no ability for first-time buyers to get on the ladder and a long social housing waiting list of up to 14 years. Many people are falling foul of the social housing limits to which there has been no change. In the case of one Kerry family that dealt with, their weekly income was €25 under the limit but, because their oldest child who is a dependant moved in with her grandmother, their income is now back over the social housing income threshold, which has not increased since 2011. They will be denied social housing. This family is about to made homeless because they have been given a notice to quit.

The high spike in notices to quit since the restrictions is no coincidence because renters are now the victims of price gouging. Landlords know they can charge what they want. We need action to undermine the hold they have over renters.

First-time buyers are also facing in to the headwinds of this laissez-faireapproach. Social housing targets are being missed and Kerry, in addition to more social and affordable housing, could benefit from a revamped serviced sites fund. There has been very little uptake of this scheme. The budget provided only €5 million extra for infrastructure such as water and electricity. In villages such as Glenbeigh, Annascaul and Abbeydorney there cannot be any further social housing or any kind of housing development. These issues need to be addressed and I urge the Minister to do so.

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