Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State said the majority of the market are people that "we" know. Does that not encapsulate the problem? Yes, they are people the Minister of State knows, people Fianna Fáil knows, and people the Healy-Rae landlord party knows. A major political problem in this country is that we have a landlords' Government accountable to a landlords' Dáil. The last time this Bill was debated, it was defeated by only 14 votes. If the landlord Deputies had done the right thing and recused themselves, our Bill would have passed. I want to start by saying that no Deputy who is a landlord or who owns a rental property should be voting on this Bill. That includes one in five of the current Cabinet: the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, and Ministers, Deputies Stephen Donnelly and Foley. The Dáil code of conduct for Deputies states Members must base their conduct on a consideration of the public interest and are individually responsible for preventing conflicts of interest. It is obvious to anybody watching this debate that a conflict of interest exists in the case of a landlord Deputy voting against this Bill. If the Bill is passed, it will impact directly on the economic self-interest of landlord Deputies who are charging extortionate rents. It would limit the amount of rent they can suck from their tenants every month and would reduce the market value of their asset. Ironically, it would not actually have any impact on the case Deputy Michael Healy-Rae was describing. I call on all landlord Deputies to do the right thing today and recuse themselves from voting on this Bill and from furthering their own economic and class interests at the expense of the renter class of ordinary working-class people and their families.

The names of the landlord Deputies who should not vote on this Bill because they have a clear conflict of interest are as follows: the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, of Fine Gael; Deputy Leddin of the Green Party; Deputy Creed of Fine Gael; Deputy Kehoe of Fine Gael; Deputy Phelan of Fine Gael; Deputy Bruton of Fine Gael; Deputy Canney of the Regional Group; Deputy Grealish of the Regional Group; Deputy Shanahan, Independent; Deputy Dillon, Fine Gael; Deputy Troy, Fianna Fáil; Deputy Michael Moynihan, Fianna Fáil; Deputy Byrne, Fianna Fáil; Deputy Haughey, Fianna Fáil; Deputy Lawless, Fianna Fáil; Deputy Aindrias Moynihan, Fianna Fáil; Deputy Brendan Smith, Fianna Fáil; Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, Rural Independent Group; Deputy Nolan, Rural Independent Group; Deputy Kelly, the Labour Party; Deputy Guirke, Sinn Féin; Deputy Stephen Donnelly, Fianna Fáil; and Deputy Foley, Fianna Fáil. Those people should not participate in the vote tonight. To do so is to engage in a conflict of interest.

Imagine the difference it would make to people's lives if those landlord Deputies recused themselves this evening, we passed the Bill on Second Stage and then we proceeded to pass it into law. Instead of people spending 40%, 50% or even 60% of their income on rent while continually being threatened by further rent increases, they could rely instead on only ever paying a set, low percentage of their income. That is precisely the system that used to exist for many working people in the past with large-scale council housing. It is precisely the system that successive Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Labour Party and Green Party governments have done their best to dismantle. It came to a point in 2015 where only 75 council houses were built across the entire State. The result of that mass privatisation policy is the largest and most dysfunctional private rental sector this country has ever seen.

The Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, suggested earlier that the private rental sector is working well for most people. That is so utterly bizarre and out of touch. Not only has it resulted in some of the highest rents in the world, it has caused unprecedented levels of homelessness and terrifying housing insecurity for tens of thousands of families. I want to take this opportunity again to call on tenants who are facing eviction as a result of this landlord Government's decision to lift the eviction ban to stay in your home. Do not let your landlord and this landlords' Government make you homeless. Challenge your termination notice with the RTB, buy yourself time, and demand that the council buy your home for social or cost-rental housing. That is what the brave tenants of Tathony House in Dublin 8 are doing. They are fighting back against their landlord's attempt to mass evict them. That is what all tenants faced with eviction into homelessness need to do. The Government keeps claiming the money will be provided to buy the homes of people facing eviction, so let us force them to put their money where their mouth is and actually to do it. The Government has the money to do whatever it wants. It is rolling in it. There is €65 billion in surpluses projected between now and 2025. That is more than enough to clear the housing list several times over. It is a political choice not to do it. Instead of investing that money long term in public housing, saving billions in HAP and RAS payments, the Government is casting around for excuses not to spend it. Maybe it wants to keep that €65 billion for a future bank bailout or maybe this time it will be investment funds, corporate landlords, or some other wing of the capitalist class that will benefit from it. We know the Government will do its best to ensure as little as possible trickles down to workers and tenants. That is why we need to build a radical housing movement on the streets, in the communities and in the workplaces that resists evictions, demands real rent controls like those in our Bill, and ends the parasitic plague of landlordism that has burdened working people for generations.

James Connolly wrote:

Our cities can never be made really habitable or worthy of an enlightened people while the habitations of its citizens remain the property of private individuals. To permanently remedy the evils of city life the citizens must own their city.

I agree wholeheartedly and hope in the near future we will have a real left Government that makes Connolly's socialist vision a reality.

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