Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Months of Opposition pressure, public anger and protest yesterday dragged the Government kicking and screaming into bringing in a temporary eviction ban. According to the Government's interesting figures yesterday, as welcome as the belated ban is it still means that 2, 273 people will face eviction after the ban ends, which means that the level of homelessness is likely to be up to 13,000 to 14,000 people. Of course, we all know that, in any event, those figures are an understatement.

Evictions and homelessness are the most horrible symptom of the deeper and more fundamental underlying failure of the Government to address the housing crisis and deliver the affordable and public housing we need to solve that crisis. The Central Bank decision to change mortgage rules is yet another symptom of that failure. We now risk repeating the mistakes of the Celtic tiger, saddling another generation of mortgage holders with potentially crippling debts, in particular if interest rates go up.

All of this speaks to a situation whereby people who need a home are caught in a vice grip of extortionate unaffordable rents and house prices and a chronic lack of public and affordable housing. What does the Government intend to do? In the interests of being constructive, just as we proposed the eviction ban I want to make some proposals about what the Government should do over the coming months. First, the State must buy up all the properties of landlords who are selling up and exiting the market. That deals with the problem of landlords exiting from rental properties. It should be a systematic policy.

I see that the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is whispering to the Taoiseach that that is happening. Of all of the ones I have raised in my area, not a single property has yet got over the line. We want to see that happen. The State must buy up developer and investor properties to ensure that every new property that comes on the market is affordable. There is no point in developers delivering stuff that nobody can afford. The Government should buy up those properties. There should be an aggressive campaign to take vacant and derelict properties into use, including a punitive - the one introduced in the budget is not - vacant property tax that forces them in.

Private building is starting to slow down, therefore a State construction company should be established to equip and support local authorities to deliver public and affordable housing directly. Can we raise the income limits, something that has been promised for more than a year, so that all of those who cannot afford extortionate rents and house prices get the support of the State in being housed?

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