Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As always, I begin by declaring an interest in this topic. However, I speak on behalf of the people I represent in making a number of observations on the matter. First, the introduction of a ban on evictions will not increase the availability of housing, public or private, in any shape or fashion whatsoever. For the people in County Kerry who are on the waiting list, it will not improve their lot one inch. I want to see real and meaningful work by the Government that will make housing available to people. The one thing this proposal certainly is doing is causing a very negative effect on any person who is involved in private letting. We should remember these people pay 56% tax on rental income. The biggest beneficiary of rental income in Ireland today is the Government. It collects the 56% tax from those people. It is important to make that clear. For every €1,000 of rent received, the Government gets €560 of that money. I am putting that on the record of the Dáil.

I was contacted by a person from the Taoiseach's constituency who voted for him in the past but does not intend to do so in the future. This person has come together with 70 other property owners in the Taoiseach's constituency who are pulling out of the business of providing accommodation on the private market. They have spoken to a family member of the Taoiseach and they have contacted his office. They have failed to make contact with him, despite many of them having voted for him. They cannot get to talk to him. They asked me to put the matter on the record of the Dáil to remind the Taoiseach that he is ignoring 70 people in his constituency who are getting out of the private property market because of what they see as the negative attitude of the Government and the lack of assistance to them in providing accommodation. The State has abjectly failed in its role of providing accommodation. There is a need for private accommodation.

I also want to give the human side of what the lack of housing means for people. Only in the past couple of hours, I got a telephone call from a very nice girl whose name and location I will not give. She is a mom of three children who was living in private rented accommodation. That accommodation is no longer available to her for a number of reasons. She had no alternative but to move back in with her mom and dad, who live in a three-bedroom house with two sisters and two brothers of the girl who called me, as well as a niece. Now the girl and her three children are also living there, which makes a total of 11 people in this small and ordinary three-bedroom house. I listened to the girl and gave a lot of care and thoughtful consideration to her plight. When I was coming through the door of the Chamber this evening, all I was thinking of was that girl and her story. She reached out to me asking whether there is some hope for her. She is not on the local authority housing list for a long enough period of time to be in line for a home. As we know, eight, nine, ten, 11 or 12 years is the minimum time people must be on the list to get a house. She will be waiting an awfully long time to get one and in the meantime she is living in that cramped and crowded accommodation.

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