Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

People's expectation to own their own home is now for many only a pipe dream. Why is that, if the economy was never stronger and employment levels are so high? NAMA is part of the answer. It was initially sold to the public as a system that would save the housing market by warehousing loans, but instead this changed midstream and those loans were sold to vulture funds, resulting in the utter collapse and devastation of the housing market in Ireland. Ruined developers were made bankrupt at every turn. The skilled workforce they employed left for greener pastures, never to return. Whatever the spin doctors say about developers, it was not the builders and developers that caused the housing collapse, but they are part of the solution, if they were only listened to by the politicians.

I uttered those words on the floor of the Dáil in March 2020, just after I was elected. Here is a little more of what I said at the time:

Change means looking at and introducing current macro-prudential rules, not applying rules of another era. Can we consider a mortgage interest rate cap? As we hear every day, banks are making excessive profits. Can we simply legislate to equate multiples of borrowing to the current interest rates, not ten year old interest rates?

Irish banks were flush with money and we had a regulator that could only be described as asleep at the wheel. Today, two and a half years since I uttered those words, we have a regulator who has woken up but it just a few years too late, as he decides to increase the multiples house buyers can borrow but with their ability to repay greatly reduced because of a cost-of-living crisis and at a time when interest rates are rising at speed. I return to my 2020 maiden speech:

The main people now facilitating the building of properties are the cuckoo funds which, as we know, pay no taxes but the optics are that we are building. We will never be able to break free of the rental limbo this Government has put us in nor will the affordability crisis ever be over unless we change how we do things. That means taking decisive action that works.

Today, optics and spin are not what it is about. It is about policies that work. It means strong leadership and standing up and being counted when faced with officials who will not listen, like a regulator insisting on the implementation of regulations and measures that reduce viability, such as dezoning lands, even serviced lands. It is just mind-boggling.

Let us not forget that for every new build, the Government takes a tax of 33%, yet rather than reducing VAT on new builds to zero, like our nearest neighbours in Northern Ireland, and encouraging building and affordability, it attacks people's property rights. An eviction ban is necessary only because of the disastrous attitude to housing of this Government and previous Governments. We should not forget that Ireland was the only country that closed its building sector during Covid. Instead of taking actions to encourage building, the Government has increased the cost of doing so with a block levy, that is, a lifelong levy for the innocent to pay, whereas those who were responsible or had been tasked with the oversight ride off into the sunset laughing at the fact they got away scot-free. The Government is making sure that housing is unaffordable for those most in need, first-time buyers, by introducing a levy. These are sticking plasters. There is not one big idea coming from the Government with regard to housing. Scheme after scheme is announced with no evidence they increase the supply. There are no meaningful actions. Where is the LDA or Croí Cónaithe? It is nonsense, all spin. There is no one in the county councils to carry out the inspections. All of them are afraid to make a decision.

On 6 July 2021, there was a debate in the House about a ban on rent increases. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, closed his remarks by stating:

There is no single, silver-bullet solution to rents. There are many solutions and a multifaceted approach is required. That is what the Government is doing. A realistic way of dealing with this would be to assess, over a 12-month period, how the measures we hope to pass tomorrow night, with the support of Deputies across all parties and none, are taking effect. We must have a proportionate response that is not going to impact on supply in the market.

I challenge any member of the Government to explain how the situation is better than it was in July 2021, when those comments were made, after all the interventions made by the Government. Is it that the Government now believes a ban on no-fault evictions is a silver bullet? It is time to admit that the Government and the housing Department are out of their depth. They are out of ideas and now they are out of housing.

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