Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Before I get into the substance of what I want to say, I will make two points about people objecting to housing. Of course, in a democratic system people have a right to put in planning submissions if they wish. For absolute clarity, the vast bulk of political representatives who submit objections to housing in my constituency are in Fianna Fáil. It is an absolute objective fact that anyone can check. The second point is that the councillors on South Dublin County Council who voted to dezone land earmarked for 100 social homes were in two parties, namely, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

Those are just two objective facts to start with. We need as many people as possible to come to the Raise the Roof demonstration that is taking place on Saturday at 1 o'clock at the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Square. I would encourage as many people as possible to do that and to bring their families and friends to that demonstration and protest. In order to put this Government under pressure, it is very important that everyone who is affected by the housing crisis, and everyone supporting those people, unites as much as possible, especially behind this campaign. That includes older people, younger people, renters, students, people with disabilities, members of the Travelling community, people who are homeless, people who are struggling to buy their own home and people seeking international protection. If all of us unite, there is strength in that. Ní neart go cur le chéile. There is no strength without unity.

There are five things the Government has been telling us about housing that simply are not true, and to which I want to draw the House's attention. To be constantly told things by the Government about housing that are simply not true is a form of gaslighting of people who cannot access the housing they need to have a safe, stable and secure life. The first thing is the Government tells us is that its housing plan is working. Clearly, it is not. It is not working for people who are stuck living at home. Last year alone, the number of young people aged 25 to 34 stuck living in their childhood bedrooms increased to a staggering 41%. That was a staggering increase in just one year of the Minister being in office, from 33.5% to 41%. You would not see an increase like that anywhere else in Europe. That is an incredible part of the Minister's record. People's lives are being put on hold so they cannot live independent lives. This affects their mental health, their relationships with their parents and their families, and their relationships with their partners and children living with them.

The Government's housing plan is not working for renters. Rents have doubled over the last decade. Today, Daft recorded the largest ever increase since it started collecting data, at 14.1%, as well as a 4.3% rent increase nationally just over three months. That has never been seen before since Daft has been recording those data. The housing plan is not working for people who would like to buy a home. The Government says it believes in home ownership, yet home ownership levels are continuing to collapse under this Government. As Lorcan Sirr and others have pointed out, even if the Housing for All plan met its targets, which it has not, home ownership levels would continue to collapse because the plan is based on more and more housing provision by investment funds at rates that people cannot afford. The housing plan is not working for people who have become homeless. There are record numbers of people living in emergency accommodation, not to mention all the people living in tents or sleeping on floors and couches. The number of children living in emergency accommodation has increased by 43% in the last year, while the Minister has been in office. It is not working for broader society. It is not working for people trying to run schools, hospitals and healthcare services, or all manner of businesses trying to recruit and retain staff that are finding that very difficult because of the accommodation crisis. It is not working for parents who are sick worrying about what will happen to their child's development if they get an eviction notice.

The second thing the Government has been telling us that simply is not true is that housing commencements are up. Both the Minister and the Taoiseach have been saying this in the House in the last couple of weeks. In fact, they are down 14% over the last year. The Government has been telling us that it will spend €4 billion of capital expenditure on housing this year. It is nowhere close to doing that. In fact, it is almost €500 million behind its projected spend for the first nine months of this year. The Government promised us that 9,000 new-build social homes would be built this year. The only figures we have show that in the first half of this year, 1,765 new-build homes were delivered. Drilling down into those figures, that figure is not even correct. In Dublin, for example, across the four local authorities, the number of new-build homes delivered by local authorities in Dublin in the first half of this year was zero. That is the figure behind all the hype. With regard to the social homes delivered by not-for-profit housing organisations across the four Dublin local authorities, the majority shown in the Government's figures as having been completed in the first half of this year were not actually completed and finished. That has been confirmed by the not-for-profit housing organisations that were involved in building and delivering them.

The Government tells us the State is the biggest actor in housing. The Taoiseach in particular keeps telling us this. A fact-check published on thejournal.ietoday found that this claim, which is repeatedly made, is in fact false. I welcome the purchase of homes when landlords give notices to quit in order to keep tenants in situ. We were told by the Minister that this scheme is in place and is operating around the country but then we were told by local authorities at the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage today that they will not be buying any more homes under that scheme unless they get approval from the Department. They were very clear on that and said there is no certainty on that scheme going forward. That is what they told us today at the housing committee.

We are told by the Government that things are getting better, just not at a fast enough pace. Rents have never been so high in this country. House prices have never been so high. Homelessness is at record levels. At the same time, the profits of some of Ireland's largest developers are soaring. The Government is busy patting itself on the back and saying what a great job it is doing but in terms of housing delivery, even this year's prediction of 20,000 new-build homes does not come anywhere close to the more than 40,000 new-build homes that everyone agrees we need every year. We are told by the Tánaiste that young people will be paying higher rents if they emigrate. This is absolutely delusional. According to EUROSTAT, Dublin is the most expensive capital in the European Union for renting. It is more expensive than Paris, Copenhagen, Luxembourg, Stockholm, Helsinki, Berlin, Madrid, Vienna, Lisbon, Rome and Brussels. The list goes on. Yet, we are told by the Tánaiste of this Government that people will be paying higher rents if they emigrate abroad. Is the Government that unaware of the situation in Ireland? Is it that unaware that rents have gone up 4.3% nationally just in the last three months? Is it not aware that we are the only country in Europe where rent increases are heavily contributing to the rate of inflation? That is not happening anywhere else across Europe. Is the Government completely unaware of this?

There is no shortage of solutions to these problems. There were 35,000 empty rental homes on census night, a lot of them short-term lets. To date, the Government has still failed to properly regulate short-term lets, which are disrupting the supply of rental properties available to people. This is leading to people being evicted so the rental home can be converted into a short-term let and the landlord can get a higher return. Yet the Government has failed to do anything on that. There were reports at the weekend of new-build apartments up on Airbnb for rents that would work out at about €6,000 per month. That can happen because the Government has failed utterly to regulate that area, something it could do straight away. Other measures are also needed. We need to build at least 20,000 public homes a year. The Social Democrats have provided detailed and costed plans on how that could be done. We need to introduce the Ó Cualann model and expand it across the country to make affordable purchase homes available. We need to end subsidies for developers and put that money into affordable purchase, cost rental and social homes.

I urge everybody to come to the Raise the Roof protest this Saturday at 1 o'clock, meeting at Parnell Square. I urge everyone to unite behind that campaign.

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