Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue. In her opening remarks, she referred to a refusal to use the word "emergency". I pointed out yesterday to the House that when I was launching Housing for All in September 2021 my precise words were, "but the fact is that the social emergency that is our housing crisis cannot and will not be solved by any one department on its own". We will not get into semantics. Suffice to say that housing is the number one and single most urgent and important social issue facing the country. Access to housing is fundamental to our security, stability, health and progress as a nation. There is scarcely a family in the country untouched by the crisis. That is why Housing for All is a very broadly-based programme.

In terms of rents, we need more supply. We need more supply and we need to build more houses more rapidly to give people greater access to different types of housing, whether that is social housing, affordable housing, cost rental or people purchasing on the private market. We have introduced a rent cap. Since December last year, the maximum by which landlords can increase rents annually in rent pressure zones, RPZs, which now cover a large part of the country, is 2%. We extended all RPZs to the end of 2024. A tenant who has been renting for at least six months now automatically gets security of tenure and can stay in his or her rented property indefinitely, so long as certain conditions apply. We also have the eviction Act, which has delayed and deferred any evictions until 31 March next year. There is a range of protections that have been passed by the House following legislation introduced by the Minister.

In respect of the specific issue raised by the Deputy, there is the Tyrrelstown amendment, which offers some protection. The Government has given local authorities the capacity and resources to purchase and it has communicated to local authorities to purchase tenancies in situor houses where tenants are in situ in respect of HAP. These properties can be bought with the tenants staying in situ.Approximately 600 is my indication of the number that have been purchased or are in the process of being purchased to date.

We need to look at the specific issue and the two cases that have been raised by the Deputy to see if anything further can be done to deal with what she is describing as a loophole. In the framing of the Tyrrelstown amendment, there has to be a balance to make sure we do not get it wrong from a constitutional perspective. That said, our objective and motivation is to protect tenants to the greatest degree possible.

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