Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As was always the case, whether six months ago, before the moratorium was in place, a year ago, three years ago or five years ago, it depends on everyone's individual circumstances. It is not the case that every notice to quit turns into an eviction, and it is not the case that every eviction results in somebody living in emergency accommodation. Deputy McDonald conflates the three things, and it is not accurate to do so. Some people will find alternative accommodation, while others will need to rely on the State to help them find accommodation. That is the way it was six months ago, before this moratorium existed. It is the way it was three years ago. It is the way it would have been in February or March if Sinn Féin were to have its way and extend the eviction ban until then. This was a temporary measure. It was put in place only for the winter period and it will end on a phased basis from the end of March of this year.

Unfortunately, when the moratorium was in place, it did not reduce the number of homeless people in Government-provided emergency accommodation precisely because there are so many other factors at play when it comes to the number of people who are homeless. There are lots of different reasons people become homeless, including family breakdown, for example, and there are lots of different reasons it is difficult to lift people out of homelessness, although we are doing that all the time. What it did do is provide time. It provided tenants with a number of additional months to find alternative accommodation, where possible, and provided the Government with time, and we used that time. Over 6,000 new social houses were built in the last quarter of 2022 as well as the provision of extra emergency accommodation if needed.

The moratorium also caused real problems which should not be dismissed. People have not been able to move into the property they own. Some people coming home from abroad - 30,000 citizens every year - have been unable to move back into the homes they rented out before they left. People who have bought properties, often for their children to live in if going to college, will not be able to house their children that way in September, which is what Sinn Féin proposes. The ban also pushed more landlords into leaving the sector, and I believe it discourages new landlords from coming in, all making the supply situation, which is at the heart of this crisis, all the worse.

Sinn Féin's plan is clear. I have read its motion and I do not think it is a good one. I know that people will read the motion, but I ask them to consider it carefully before they vote for it if they choose to do so. It proposes to continue a ban on people being able to move back into their own properties and people being allowed to move children or family members back into their own properties. Sinn Féin has put in no exemption for that in its motion. Sinn Féin also says we should extend the ban until January because it believes that things can be made fundamentally different in such a short period. The truth is that it would probably just make matters worse than they are now. We might see even more landlords choosing to sell up, and that would be a mistake, or Sinn Féin would discourage more landlords from coming in.

Simply kicking the can down the road is not a housing policy, in my view. The solution to this is a different one. It is more social housing, which we are doing. It is the tenant in situscheme, which we are doing. It is more supply such as through Croí Cónaithe and changes to the fair deal scheme. It is tax changes to encourage more landlords to stay in the market and more to re-enter it. It is also increasing funding for homelessness prevention.

We agreed in the countermotion today a number of things. We agreed there would be a tax package in the budget for small landlords, and that will take effect this year to encourage them to enter and to stay in the sector. This was after consultations with our parliamentary party and some of the Independent groups. We have agreed to extend the Croí Cónaithe refurbishment grant scheme for people who are doing up derelict properties for the purpose of renting them and those built prior to 2007. We have agreed that if people rent out rooms in their houses, it will not affect their social welfare entitlements or their medical card entitlements. That is open to local authority tenancies as well. We have also agreed, as I said earlier, to give local authorities the authority to buy up to 1,500 homes where people are facing a notice to quit. That will be a solution for many people.

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