Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I am very proud to speak to the motion. I thank my colleague, Deputy Cian O'Callaghan, for his work on this issue. This motion is an example of the common-sense, practical and realistically achievable housing proposals the Government should be bringing in.

We all know, the Government included, that one in six homes in Ireland is currently vacant. We know that many people are leaving their homes vacant with a plan, potentially, for them in the future. We know that many people are using this period of vacancy and record housing prices to hedge bets on selling. However, we also know that those homes that are vacant and sitting empty are needed in the market now. They are needed for people and families now. In the event that people sometimes need to keep their homes for future use, those homes could be used in the interim as a rental property. Essentially, those homes need to be put into usage now.

Currently, 11,742 people are homeless and in emergency accommodation. That includes 3,373 children who are learning to walk in hotel rooms and cannot have playdates or friends over. They are being moved from hotel to hotel and uplifted from their schools and communities in order to have housing. These 3,373 children will be scarred for evermore by their early start and upbringing. Some 4,500 notices to quit were presented in quarter 4 of 2022. That is 4,500 families and homes that are now in incredibly stressful and traumatic situations. Those people are frantically trying to find a home for themselves and their families. There are hundreds of thousands of people who are living at home with their parents or grandparents, forever stuck in a limbo land where they never ever see themselves in their own homes with their own independent living.

It is a matter of common sense that everything that can be done to incentivise the owners of vacant homes to bring them into use must be done. The Government has brought in several incentives that have been offered to the owners of vacant homes in recent years, including grants for refurbishment. There has also been a half-hearted attempt, and that is being incredibly generous to the Minister, at using the tax system to encourage and nudge people in the right direction, namely, the introduction of the vacant homes tax. However, the Government's 0.3% tax is not fooling anyone. The market is offering the top prize of asking prices that have never been seen before and some of the highest rents in recent history. Regardless of whether we might disagree ideologically with the Government on what is a fair and sustainable tax, we can all agree that its vacant homes tax is not doing the job it should and our proposed vacant homes tax of 10% would be enough to incentivise people to use their homes, whether that is through selling, using those homes themselves or renting them out.

There are 166,000 houses sitting vacant, a number of which are in my constituency. Why is the Government not bringing these on stream or facilitating that? It is the quickest way of bringing houses into the market. The Government should be focused on doing that but, unfortunately, it is not putting the required emphasis on that for some reason. As my colleagues have said, this makes the best use of these houses not only economically and socially but also environmentally because the most environmentally sustainable house is the one that is already built. The measures we are bringing forward would allow us to bring homes onto the market without a major increase in carbon output that solely depending on new builds would create.

This tax is good for the housing market. It makes most sense for hard-pressed renters and buyers. It is the least-worst option from an environmental standpoint and, most important, it is what is needed now.

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