Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I offer solidarity with the two gardaí who were badly injured in a vicious attack in Dublin last night. All Deputies will want to share their thoughts and sympathies with them and their families.

Each week brings more news of the Government’s failure on housing policy. Today in particular we see news about failed policy in regard to renters, with a report from Daft.ie showing that rents rose by 14% year on year and a record 4.3% increase between June and September this year. Rents in Dublin, including my own constituency, are now more than €2,200 per month on average. In Longford, Leitrim and Cavan rents rose by a staggering 20%. We are seeing that this is a widespread phenomenon.

We see rising rents and unaffordable homes for people. Increasingly, I know all of us are hearing, as I am, stories from those seeking to rent who are simply unable to secure affordable accommodation. One student told me at the weekend of spending five months looking in Dublin for somewhere suitable to rent and is now paying €1,200 per month for one room in a shared house with a shared, communal bathroom facility. Another constituent told me that upon contacting her landlord to request necessary plumbing and heating repairs, she was then issued with a notice to quit because her landlord was selling her home. The Government’s very welcome U-turn on a temporary eviction ban means she will not be without a home this Christmas, but the notion that a landlord could even threaten someone with eviction merely for requesting necessary repairs to their home is an indictment of our housing system. Some of the stories I hear all of the time from constituents about their difficulties with securing housing are stories we might expect from a Seán O’Casey play, not from a wealthy, prosperous European capital city in the 21st century.

It is again an indictment of Government failings. I urge everyone to come out this Saturday, 26 November, for the Raise the Roof rally in Parnell Square, which we in the Labour Party and those across the Opposition are supporting. We know that policies are failing, that people are left without homes and that 11,000 people registered homeless last month. We see trade unions representing those in the education system saying the housing crisis is jeopardising education because teachers cannot afford homes and students at third level cannot afford to rent close to where they are going to college.

I ask the Taoiseach to commit to spending the time that has been bought through the winter eviction ban to ensure the reduction of red tape to facilitate the purchase of properties by local authorities, so at least we will see the tenant in situscheme ramped up and strengthened to ensure some protections are afforded to families beyond this winter, where otherwise they might be facing eviction. Will the Taoiseach heed our calls and adopt a policy of strengthening the tenant in situscheme to ensure we will not see a deluge of further evictions in the spring?

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