Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak. It is the second time today I have spoken about housing, which is unusual. Part of me does not want to repeat the same thing. However, it is extremely important that we continue to counter the narrative from the Government.

I welcome the Bill and the effort that has gone into it. This should have happened sooner. We know that the moratorium on evictions during the pandemic had a positive impact. There was a dramatic decrease in evictions. After it was lifted, of course, evictions rose sharply. Since then, the housing crisis has worsened and deepened. Notwithstanding the narrative from the Government, we now know that there were 10,805 people homeless in August, 3,220 of whom were children. It is important to say those figures slowly and out loud because their homelessness is a direct consequence of Government policy.

Imagine, we are here today and the Government has the help of all the Opposition. Pre-legislative scrutiny was waived. No analysis has been done by the Library and Research Service, which I thank for the Bill briefing it produced under pressure. All of that effort has been made to help the Government to bring in legislation to stop evictions for a certain length of time, to defer them, and introduce them on a phased basis so that the homeless services will not be overwhelmed. That is what we have come to in this country. That in itself is worthy of a little silence and reflection. We have come to a point in our lives where we have to bring in legislation for phased evictions. They will be deferred and then brought in on a phased basis so that the homeless services will not be overwhelmed. We know officially that 10,805 people are homeless. I like to be precise with figures because they represent mothers, fathers and children.

A wise Government or politician would ask what they are doing and what is happening because things are worsening, despite the narrative. In Galway city, there is not a single home available under any housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme, whether the regular scheme or the scheme under which discretion is allowed. We know that from the Simon Community, and I read that out this morning. There is nothing available. We have a housing task force that has been sitting every now and again. I understand we are waiting for the minutes of a meeting in February, in a situation when Galway is at crisis point. I checked today. One person has been on a waiting list since 2007 and has never been offered a home. This is the tenth year of her wait. There is no need to exaggerate because the figures are stark.

The CEO of Galway City Council made a two-page presentation to the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage last week. I always look for brevity because I think it adds to an argument. However, in this particular case, brevity from the CEO meant a two-page presentation dedicated to a city that is going under because of the housing crisis. One thing that jumps out at me from that presentation is where the CEO stated, "Essential to the delivery of our targets are the private sector in their role in delivery of social and affordable housing through Part V and turnkey schemes." The document includes a list, which I welcome, and the numbers of builds involved are minute. We are utterly reliant on the market, according to the CEO of Galway City Council, even though the Taoiseach tells us the State is the biggest agent in the sector at the moment. The CEO tells us we are reliant on the market in Galway city.

I have mentioned the task force, and I mentioned the Land Development Agency, LDA, this morning. I will come back to that point. We have pockets of land in Galway. We have no city architect. We have run down the planning department. I am not here to demonise any planning department because its staff work extremely hard. We have absolutely run them down and run them ragged. We have made them involved in the strategic housing schemes, which means extra work for which they got no recompense, psychologically or financially, to help An Bord Pleanála. We have done away with them now, again on a phased basis. We have no personnel within the city council and no policy to directly build public housing on public land. We can use the LDA, or any agency we like, but we must allow the local authority to lead, with vision from the Government. We need public housing on public land.

We must deal with our waiting lists. We must look to remove the silly situation, and "silly" does not capture it, in respect of income limits. In my office and with my staff, as is the case for all Deputies, one cannot imagine what we are doing. We are trying to get people back on lists from which they were removed because their income went up a little bit, either as a result of extra payments or extra work for a period of time. We write letters. It is like a lucky dip. Sometime we are lucky and get those people back on those lists. That makes us rejoice. Those people bring me gifts, which I do not need, such is their gratitude. All us Deputies are doing those things instead of looking at the bigger problem. Very often, when such people are put back on the lists, they have lost two years. People may have been on the list since 2007 before losing time between 2019 and 2021 and thereafter being reinstated. We are delighted by such a result. That is what we have been reduced to. We are utterly failing, and I include myself in that. Despite my best efforts, and those of the Opposition more widely, we have utterly failed to get the message across. We are not ideologues on this side of the House. It is about what is practical and common sense. We must have homes for people and security of tenure. That can be achieved in a myriad of ways, but mostly through the provision of public housing on public land. We must balance the market and let it provide. We have done the opposite. We have removed local authorities and the Government from the equation through the introduction of HAP.

Do the Members remember that? I did not have time to quote it this morning and I do not have it with me but somebody in the Department absolutely rejoiced at the wonder that was HAP. It is quoted there in my papers. This person was taking a delight in the progress that was made with HAP, which was a complete privatisation of the housing service. We then bring in all of the other little schemes which ensure we keep the prices so high, we think it is normal when the Central Bank changes its rules to make it more flexible for somebody to buy a house and get a mortgage of four times their salary. What kind of a civilised society thinks that is civilised? These are more flexible rules. The inflexibility of the Central Bank, going back in time, was the justification for the help to buy scheme. I have read into the record what Mazars, in its fourth report analysing this, said and it is utterly terrible. I am paraphrasing but it asked not to get rid of the scheme now because it would be too much of a jolt to the market and to the expectations that we will continue to help people to buy houses costing up to €500,000. This is four times more the cost of the scheme than had ever been envisaged by the Department of Finance. The Government wants us to have faith in it in this respect.

I certainly welcome this legislation although I am at a loss to know the cut-off point. I understand it from a legal point of view but what does one do with all of the people who have received notices to quit and are overholding before this legislation? Do we just look on them as deadweight, or what is the rationale for that? I ask that the Minister of State might try to explain that to me, please, because I will go a long way with him in understanding legislation. What is this cut-off point and what about those people who are already overholding? What will happen to them? There is no emergency accommodation available in Galway city, as I understand it. There are very few houses for rent. The houses there do not come under any of the schemes we have, yet we are persisting with that and putting money into the market.

I know we cannot a rid of these schemes overnight but I certainly do not agree with Mazars that it will take another two years to get rid of the help to buy scheme. We need a fundamental recognition that we allowed this to happen, government after government, based upon Government policy which said the market would provide. This is a market that is driven by greed and profit, and off with them. I am not here to judge them on a moral basis. I am here, however, as somebody in the Legislature who says there is a different way and it needs to be regulated and controlled.

I will finish again by talking about Galway. We have a port in Galway which owns land which is doing its own thing. We have Ceannt Station with 14 acres of land in the middle of the city doing its own thing. We have Sandy Road with more land, and Headford, and we are being told repeatedly by the narrative that these are all marvellous plans and we have drawn in, I believe, nine or ten architects in respect of Sandy Road to give us their vision. We know the vision and it is public housing on public land, indistinguishable from other houses. Stop this hypocrisy and division and let people who want to rent for life rent for life. Allow those who want to buy to get a mortgage but not at four times their salary. I welcome the legislation in the limited way I have outlined.

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