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

It is just unbelievable. We are facing an unprecedented housing, homelessness, and accommodation crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people have been let down by the Government not providing the most basic thing, namely, a secure, affordable roof over the heads of individuals, families, and children. There are 122,000 households on the various housing lists. Almost 11,000 families, including 3,000 children, are in homeless accommodation. Thousands of Ukrainians, who have fled war and conflict and are in desperate situations, are being failed by the State and the Government not providing a basic thing, which is to have a roof over their heads.

The motion points out that the answer to this crisis is staring us in the face. According to the census, there are 160,000 vacant properties in this country, 48,000 of which had been empty for the six years since the previous census. In addition, although we do not do a proper count of derelict properties, it is estimated that there are at least 20,000 derelict properties. The answer to the housing crisis, to the homelessness misery, and to the desperate situation of Ukrainians who need and deserve our assistance, is staring us in the face. It is for the State and the Government to take the necessary action to bring derelict properties into use to house all those who need a secure, affordable roof over their heads.

We are proposing a number of measures that could begin to address the crisis because we do not want to just give out about the situation. The central solution, which we have not even included in the motion because we have put it out there so many times, as have others, is for the Government to dramatically ramp up construction of its own public and affordable housing on the abundant public land that is out there. To understand the scale of the Government's failure in this regard, I refer to my area, which is one of the areas worst affected by the housing crisis. Even if the targets are met in the Dún Laoghaire area, when the Housing for All plan concludes in 2026, more people being on the housing waiting list than there are now. That is how inadequate the plan is.

As our motion sets out, the Government is failing spectacularly to meet its own targets for the delivery of social and affordable housing. The Government's target for 2022 is 9,000 social homes, but it had delivered only 1,500 halfway through the year. The Government promised 4,100 affordable and cost rental homes, but it has only delivered 325 affordable homes and 234 cost-rental homes halfway through the year. These are hopelessly inadequate targets. The ability of the Government to implement even its own targets is hopelessly inadequate.

We acknowledge that, albeit belatedly and under massive pressure from the Opposition and as a result of the public outcry, the Government finally brought in an eviction ban. If you want to address an unprecedented homelessness crisis, the obvious thing to do is to prevent further people from being driven into homelessness, which the Government has allowed to happen on a spectacular level over recent years. In just one year, the number of people in homeless accommodation went from 8,400 to 10,800 because the Government allowed people to be evicted into homelessness. Looking at the situation in Tathony House, Dublin 8, you get an idea of the motivations behind people being driven into homelessness. The owner of the 35 properties is estimated to be making an income of €700,000 per year and is claiming financial hardship as a justification for evicting 35 households. That is absolutely disgusting. Even the eviction ban the Government brought in has a loophole such that any tenant who got a termination date before the introduction of the legislation could be evicted in the coming months, in the depths of winter, which is something the Government had better amend in the legislation that will come before the House this afternoon.

I refer to immediate solutions. If we have 166,000 empty properties, of which 48,000 have been empty for six years, and 20,000 derelict properties, the answer is simply for the Government to take those properties under its control, refurbish them and use the necessary construction capacity to make them available as social and affordable housing. However, the Government refuses to do that. For four years, I have been pointing to an example of that in my area. Some 17 apartments at St. Helen's Court have been empty for two to three years and the landlord - a vulture fund - has been trying to evict the rest of the tenants for a number of years. The Government will still not take control of those properties. We maintain that there should be a use-it-or-lose-it provision. If a property is vacant for more than six months without good reason, the State should acquire it, by means of compulsory purchase order if necessary, in order to deliver social and affordable housing.

Similarly, there are 80,000 sites with planning permission. In many cases, however, developers are sitting on those sites, drip-feeding housing and watching the value of their properties go up. In fact, the worse the housing crisis gets, the more money they make from the value of their properties. Such sites with planning permission should be taken over by the State in order to deliver social and affordable housing,. The Government should create a State construction company in order that we are not dependent on private developers to do it. We should do it directly ourselves.

See this speech in context