Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent) | Oireachtas source

At the Ard-Fheis at the weekend, An Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, pledged to make home ownership affordable again. However, an entire generation of people are locked out of secure and affordable homes. The median selling price for a house in Ireland during quarter 3 stood at €301,000, that is €26,000 up on the same period last year. That is only going to rise due to the impact of inflation and higher interest rates. The promise of social and affordable homes for purchase or rent aims to eliminate homelessness and address waiting lists through the housing for all scheme yet homelessness is at a record level with child homelessness up by 51% since April 2021. On top of this people are queuing down the street for a room. People are being priced out of buying a home and nearly half of people's wage are being paid in rent. The number of people being made homeless is unreal. Waiting lists for social housing are too long and eligibility thresholds remain too low.

I acknowledge that the Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, announced an increase in the threshold for social housing by €5,000 from next January. That will mean many more people across the country will qualify for social housing. However, what about those homeless his winter and Christmas? Not a day passes without someone coming into my constituency office who is in that situation. It could be due to a husband and wife separating or someone in the home who has an addiction and their parents cannot put up with them any more. In Louth 68% of homeless adults in emergency accommodation are long-term homeless. I commend the homelessness section in Louth County Council. We ring it nearly every day and in fairness the staff do their best. Many of the homeless people who come into my office have an addiction problem. Emergency accommodation is a good place to go but most of them refuse to go there because they maintain that drugs are available there. This is something we must examine given the amount of money the Government is spending on emergency accommodation.

Similarly within social housing complexes we must examine antisocial behaviour to ensure safety of families and children. Local authority tenants in a Dundalk town centre apartment complex say they are going through a living hell with issues such as persistent drug-taking in the corridors, rough sleeping, vandalism, regular violence, sexual activity in public spaces and even faeces in the lifts and corridors. If there is a problem with drugs in them then we will have to examine it seriously. There is a severe housing shortage, spiralling rental costs and in Louth alone rents have gone up by 8%. This is hitting everybody and all walks of life.

Currently there are about 30 unoccupied council houses in Dundalk. I appreciate the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage pays €11,000 per house to local authorities to get these houses back on the market. It take between six and seven months, if not longer, to get this done. According to a recent report by the National Oversight and Audit Commission, NOAC, the average time that it takes for Louth County Council to re-let a house is 42 weeks from when it is vacated to when a new tenant moves in, while the average cost of doing up a property for re-letting in 2021 was €17,856.

Louth is not alone in experiencing longer times and rising costs for property re-lets. Given the current crisis it is not good enough that any house would be left void for any period of time. Two weeks ago I offered a solution to the housing in Dundalk. A local developer has planning permission for more than 500 houses and is willing to put up between 150 and 200 modular homes. I invited the Taoiseach and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy O'Brien, to come to my home town of Dundalk to visit the site and the factory that manufactures modular homes which is about ten miles from Dundalk. In fairness to the Minister and his Department we have spoken several times in the past few weeks and in the next day or so I will receive a date from the Minister on which he will meet the developer and the manufacturer of these modular homes. This is definitely a step in the right direction.

At the moment people only talk about modular homes for Ukrainians. However, modular homes are shovel-ready, electricity, sewers and gas infrastructure is ready and there are schools, shops and everything else in the vicinity. These are three- and four-bedroom, fully fitted family homes for people who could be on the waiting list of Louth County Council for as long as ten years. People come into my constituency office daily. They would be delighted to have a roof over their heads. They do not want to rear their children in apartments. They want them to have a normal life in a safe environment.

We have to facilitate all construction types. Modular homes take between four and five weeks to put together. The company is willing to put a team together to facilitate these 150 to 200 homes. If we get the first projects off the ground people will develop more confidence in this form of housing. As homelessness is at record highs at the moment this would be a win-win for all. As home ownership declines and no further homes are available to buy it is important we do this. The current cost to rent a property in Dundalk and the Louth area is €1,420 and that is the cheapest. The scale of the housing needs is such that we have to make progress on planning permissions and on housing projects that are well designed. I submitted a priority question recently regarding planning permission in rural Ireland. Daily I meet constituents who are being rejected left, right and centre, sometimes for very vague reasons. I do not understand this. There have been too many objections over recent years and these objections do not match the crisis. Everybody needs a change of mindset in view of the enormous challenges facing us in housing. While the Government's ten-year housing plan may bring relief in the long-term more immediate action is needed to relieve the burden on renters. Many people pay more in rent than they would if they had a mortgage.

Many students are at breaking point amid the accommodation crisis. It is forcing some students out of third-level education or to go abroad. Recently the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, co-ordinated a students' walk-out in protest at the lack of accommodation for those attending further education. The Government must listen to these students. The market has failed to deliver accommodation for those renting and seeking to attend college. The resulting hardship and financial burden placed upon young people in Ireland merely to obtain an education will cost this Government in the long run. The Government needs to act now because if nothing is done we will lose our emerging talent to overseas countries that offer significant incentives and a better standard of life.

It should be acknowledged that the Government is committing €8 billion to the national retrofit programme which will make houses warmer, reduce energy bills and bring down emissions in line with our climate targets. I have had many inquiries from constituents about waiting times and decision timeframes. There are currently more than 9,000 homes awaiting works under the better energy warmer homes scheme, BEWHS, with a wait time of 27 months. That wait time is shocking. I ask the Government to consider the immediate approval of allocations received under the national retrofitting scheme. Retrofitting both public and private dwellings is a central part of the EU climate plan. Falling behind is simply not an option. We need to help the people now by providing greater investment in retrofitting houses as a matter of urgency. The fact that so many homeowners have already applied to upgrade their homes should be welcomed but external factors such as inflation and supply chain constraints are proving problematic. It is crucial that we iron out these issues as much as possible in the short term in order to meet our ambitious target of 500,000 home energy upgrades by 2030. The Government should ensure the grant scheme can meet the demands and reflect the increase in construction cost in order to meet our target for emissions reduction. The upper limit grant should reflect the increase in the cost of construction. If we are to tackle this issue we need to take a much more direct route.

I raise also a concern that current and new housing developments in my constituency of Louth and east Meath are still installing gas lines instead of heat pumps. These new developments are going to cost us in the coming years as they will have to be replaced. The Government must look at long-term cost and implement regulations now.

We all agree that housing is the biggest issue facing us coming into the Christmas period. There is a housing emergency. Nobody wants to be homeless at Christmas. Nobody wants their child on the streets at Christmas. We need to do more. I have today offered a solution. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and his Department will follow up on their promise to come to my home town and meet the developers and the modular houses manufacturers.

What I ask is that instead of us all playing political football, that all of us in this House work together.

To reiterate a few points I made earlier, people are being priced out of buying a home; nearly half of their wages are being paid in rent. They are paying more in rent than they would pay on a mortgage. That is an absolute disgrace. There is too much red tape to go through for people who are homeless. People who come to my constituency office being made homeless say they cannot get on the council housing list nor HAP because they need to have an address and utility bills. Also there is a serious situation in emergency accommodation regarding the drug situation. I plead with the Minister to meet with the local authorities and the HSE. This is a very serious issue. Young people of 18, 19 and 20 years of age come to my office who are addicts and who want to get help for themselves.

However, by going into emergency accommodation, it is going to get worse and worse. The situation is serious. I plead with the Minister of State. As I said, if we all work together, we have a chance of getting this crisis sorted out.

See this speech in context