Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

In this Chamber and indeed in this Republic we are no strangers to the word "crisis". What I find fascinating about its use and how it is regularly thrown around this Chamber is that the word "crisis", which means the same thing regardless of the context in which it is used, can evoke such a divergence of urgency from those in power, depending on who is impacted by it and who is at fault for causing it. A crisis, by its very definition, requires swiftness in its response.

In the spring of 2020, just a couple of weeks into this Dáil term, we saw how quickly the State, and all of us working in unison across the Chamber, could respond to a crisis that had the potential to uproot the very fabric of society. Overnight, we saw the State initiate matters that we were told would never be possible outside of the response required to combat the crisis of Covid-19. Overnight, we saw an almost universal healthcare service for the briefest time, along with the rebranding of the social welfare system with a safety net payment set at a rate that well exceeded the minimum needed for a decent standard of living. This was done because of a crisis. We saw an entire society willing to sacrifice its own liberty for the briefest moment of time because the crisis demanded immediacy in its response to preserve the collective.

In the crisis initiated by the cruel and unjust invasion of Ukraine by the forces of Putin, this State and our people have rightfully opened our homes and communities to 75,000 people who have come here in search of sanctuary from that conflict. Undoubtedly, this has been a challenge on an immense scale but the Irish people in unison with the State have more than stepped up to meet that crisis.

Yet, when it comes to the tragedy, and it is a tragedy, that is our housing crisis, which is literally devastating the lives of people the length and breadth of this country, why is it that our Government of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party are so continuously lacking in urgency? Why are they so shamefully neglectful of their duty to provide this most fundamental of human needs? Why are they so hell-bent to preserve the status quo of the failed policies that may well have served the interests of those in their tents and at their fundraising dinners, but have undoubtedly obliterated the social contract on which this State and this Republic relies?

I have to believe that regardless of the seat you occupy in this Chamber, you view the catastrophe of housing shortages or homelessness for the crisis that it is. I have to believe that Government Deputies get the same emails I get, and that they meet the same people I meet walking down the road who come to talk their own need, or their child's absolute need, for a house. I fully believe that each of us recognises this crisis for what it is, but we seem to want a different form of urgency in how we proceed to counter it. If it is the case that we all recognise it as a crisis - if a crisis in housing is what Government Deputies recognise occurring in the State they equally have been chosen to serve - surely they must recoil in a mix of horror and embarrassment when they hear about the factors that are compounding the failures of their Government, of their party, and more truthfully still of the ideology in which they have placed their faith in this regard.

In this crisis, do Deputies feel that an underspend of any description in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is unacceptable? An underspend of €1 billion in this area while families are being torn apart by the crisis is just a dereliction of duty. They voted to end the eviction ban. Are they now in any way angry that they took that decision while the actual numbers of families facing homelessness was withheld from or indeed unrequested by the Minister who should have provided them with the information beforehand? Are they embarrassed by that? Are they angry? I honestly could go on listing these failures for some time. However, to get to the point of the motion tabled by Deputy Cian O'Callaghan, do Government Deputies honestly not feel that during a crisis when 12,000 people in this Republic are homeless, of whom 3,000 are children, when 7,000 others are living under eviction notices and when innumerable adults are placing their lives on hold because they simply cannot afford rent or are living in overcrowded conditions that are almost Dickensian in their form, to have more than 83,000 vacant properties, not even derelict properties, within our midst is not only farcical but is just cruel?

I want to repeat that figure and make it more exact because when you become conscious of the sheer number of houses that are vacant but could otherwise become homes that would greatly offset this crisis, you cannot help but realise that our crisis is one that has design or, at a minimum, State indifference built into it. The Minister referenced one particular set of figures. I will go into specific figures we were using. The GeoDirectory, which compiled its figures using reports from An Post delivery staff and Ordnance Survey Ireland staff, counted 83,662 vacant homes. Additionally, it counted 21,481 derelict potential homes nationwide. I fully accept that these properties are more difficult to reinvigorate, but it is by no means impossible.

We come to what the ask is for the Social Democrats today. My colleague, Deputy O'Callaghan, has raised this numerous times as indeed have our party leader, Deputy Cairns, and Deputies Catherine Murphy and Shortall before her. What we are asking for is a vacancy tax that has teeth. We use that reference very specifically because a tax that has teeth is one that leaves an impact. It is a tax for a person who might find himself or herself in a position of privilege whereby they are literally sitting on a vacant property that could otherwise be reanimated in order that a family experiencing homelessness, one living under the sword of Damocles of eviction, could potentially take as a home. What we ask for is a tax of 10%. We appreciate that within that figure we are willing to negotiate. However, the 0.3% tax brought in by the Government in the budget in 2012 is a tax we describe as derisory. I would go further than that. I believe it has been designed to fail. It is a pantomime of action in order that the Government does not have to go against people whom it believes to be more likely to vote for its Members. The consequences of that have been felt by the families who are experiencing an absolute tragedy that is this crisis of housing. Therefore we bring forward the figure of 10%. As our housing spokesperson, Deputy Cian O’Callaghan, has said, that is a figure we are willing to negotiate on. We are not even looking to change the Government’s own definition of what is a vacancy tax. We believe there are reasonable aspects within that. We are not trying to remove the Government’s exemption which the Minister also referenced as we genuinely believe it could be sensible. What we ask for action on is that this tax has an impact. The Minister said he is willing to keep a review in mind. I ask him if he really believes it is conscionable that we have 100,000 vacant homes. Is he willing to keep a review in mind over a period of time for 0.3% of a tax on vacant homes?

I have given my presentation talking about crises. In a crisis the responsibility is to act swiftly. The people of this country are placing on hold their lives and their children’s futures. They feel the impact of homelessness, the threat of eviction and inability to access sanctuary that should be a house. They do not have time for the Minister’s review. He talks about this being a new tax. I assure him it is a very old idea, one that his party, Fianna Fáil, promised several years ago. However, when it came to action, it succumbed, as seems to happen, to the ideology of Fine Gael. It simply said that rather than initiating a tax with teeth, it would subordinate itself to Fine Gael's laissez-faireideology and policy.

How can it not be policy when, in a crisis where we have upwards of 80,000, 90,000 or 100,000 homes sitting without families in them, families in this State are literally being told to go to police stations? If the Minister believes, as we do, that this is a crisis, which I must assume he does, then he must act. We are not saying this is the panacea. We are not saying that enacting the single measure we are bringing forward today will solve the crisis. We are saying this will make a difference.

The Government asks us to bring solutions. The Taoiseach and Tánaiste regularly throw stones at the Opposition and say we bring no solutions. We are using our Private Members' time to tell the Minister his Government's tax is ineffective. The people do not have time for a review, so we are saying the Minister should increase the tax. He should make it 10%. Let us reanimate those homes. Let us incentivise people who have the luxury of sitting on vacant homes while others are sitting in police stations, to rent them, sell them and get families into them. We do not have time for a review. This is a solution. If it falls on deaf ears, I promise the Minister this will be a policy the Social Democrats will bring to the table in government.

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