Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is becoming more difficult every week to come into this Chamber, after a weekend of clinics, meetings and house calls, to juxtapose the experiences that we are having with people at the sharp end of the housing crisis and in the rental sector with what we are experiencing on this campus. We are discussing housing in three main theatres at the moment. We have Leaders' Questions every week, where the Taoiseach or the Tánaiste will throw back two main tropes at the Opposition. One is that there are no solutions and that we are not putting anything forward. The other is that we all just object to everything anyway. We are now in Private Member's time, which demonstrates clearly to the Government that the Opposition puts forward solutions. What is before the House is one such solution. It is a Bill aimed at reducing rents that are the highest in Europe. It aims to tackle one of the primary causes of hurt, pain and difficulty. Sinn Féin Deputies mentioned rental credit, which is one of their party's solutions. Last week, we debated a vacant homes tax from the Social Democrats, which is their solution. We previously tabled a renters' rights Bill on Private Member's business. All of these examples show the Opposition genuinely trying to tackle the housing crisis.

It is the third theatre that we find most frustrating - at least I do - because it is not located here; it is located at the podiums outside Government Buildings where certain announcements are made. In this regard, I refer, for example, to the announcement yesterday to the effect that there will be a temporary waiver in respect of development contributions. This is absolute lunacy. It is crazy that this is being brought forward for existing planning permissions. It gives further inducements to developers to build what they already have planning permission to build. Developers are not going under or struggling to make profits at present. They are controlling and setting the provision of housing in this country with the support and cheerleading of this Government. It is supposed to be a temporary waiver. I wonder how temporary it is going to be. Will it be temporary like the eviction ban in that there will be a hard end to it, like there has been for renters who are facing into the abyss of homelessness? Will this be a temporary waiver that will go on and on?

Developers do not come to the advice clinics that I or my colleagues in other parties hold. The people who come are renters, tenants and people facing homelessness. In other words, those who have very little power or agency and who are throwing themselves at the mercy of Deputies such as us. We have very little power to help them in light of the trajectory of our housing system. I am sure developers have significant access to ensure that this further inducement they are getting will not be temporary. It probably will be temporary until it is replaced with a further inducement and another way for them to earn more money. This is cash for developers without conditions. That we are giving them public money without any conditions relating to the housing system is absolutely beyond belief. There is not enough anger about this.

Talk about going back to the bad old days of how we got here in the first place. We can all pick whatever point in history we want to embark on. We know the main sea change in housing policy, when we shifted properly away from any kind of public provision of housing in the 1990s to the developer-led model. We are back here again. Not only are we back, we are further cementing in place the use of this model for the delivery of housing. The headline figure of €1 billion absolutely flatters to deceive. That is on the back of a €1.5 billion underspend in the housing capital budget. This is taking money that the Department has been unable to spend on the delivery of housing and handing a portion of it over to developers. This will not do anything to reduce the price of housing. It will not do anything to make it more affordable. It will certainly not have any trickle-down effect to reduce the price of rents, which is what this Bill is speaking directly to. It is so difficult. There is such a divide between the reality on the ground of where the hurt is and what is happening with Government in trying to provide solutions, because it is just not providing solutions.

We submitted a freedom of information request in respect of the publication of homelessness figures. We asked the Government, the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, what kind of evidence base was used to lift the eviction ban. There was no answer because there was no evidence base. We discovered, from the freedom of information request our party leader, Deputy Bacik, submitted, that the publication of figures of who was going to progress into homelessness was delayed until after the ban was lifted. This is so disheartening. There is no sense that a corner is being turned, as we are repeatedly told. In fact, we cannot even see the corner. We are still heading down the road towards increased homelessness, rents going up and a situation so bleak and difficult that it is no wonder people, including the young and the old - because this cuts across all generations - are looking to leave.

What are people who are renting accommodation or buying their own homes in the major cities or in the area of Dublin in which I live - I will not use the word "lucky" to describe them because they are paying through the nose to do so - getting in return? Are they getting a fantastic public transport system? No. Are they getting a wonderful, world-class health service that is free at the point of use with no waiting lists? No. If their children require services or assessments of need, are they able to get them? No. We have a failing public system that faces many challenges. Underpinning all that, if people have a place to live, they are paying through the nose for it, with the highest rents in Europe. They have to be asking themselves why they are here investing in Project Ireland. They are getting nothing for it. They are being abused.

This Government has money that it is failing to spend. Instead of giving people help and putting in place measures that will reduce rents, and instead of trying to put money back in people's pockets and increase the security of their tenure, it is doing what got this country to where it is in the first place. It is going to developers and offering them more money. We will look back on this period and say that this was where the next proper economic crash was rooted. It is happening now in front of our very eyes. It is incredible that the Government is pursuing these policies at this time.

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