Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Earlier this week I raised with the Taoiseach the desperate case of Micheline Walsh and her husband, who are in their late 70s and facing eviction. I said then they were not alone and, very sadly, today we see a report from Alone and Threshold on older and ageing persons in the private rental sector. The report notes 40% of older people who are now renting expect to have to continue renting in the private market for the rest of their lives. Many of them are reporting high stress as a result of the housing insecurity they are experiencing as renters. These are the hidden victims of the housing crisis. These are people - pensioners - who have worked all their lives, contributed to society in innumerable ways and who are supposed to be able to enjoy retirement in peace and security. Instead, older people are faced with the constant stress of housing insecurity, which we all know has a detrimental effect on health. Many older people are forced to move prematurely into nursing homes and are denied their right to live independently by the chronic shortage of homes.

Time and time again the struggles of older people and their situation are ignored by society and the State. Our entire housing and pension system has for far too long relied on the assumption people aged over 65 years will have paid off their mortgages, own their own homes and will not be renting. As Minister for Finance, the Minister will be aware the non-contributory State pension assumes this. It sits at a meagre €13,000 per year. Even with the housing assistance payment, HAP, how could anyone be expected to pay a mortgage or for private rented accommodation on that income? Our pension system is totally unfit for purpose when so many people aged over 65 years, and people who will soon be aged over 65 years, face having to rent into the future in a situation where rents have been allowed inflate so rapidly.

The housing policy of the Minister's Government does not support those who are most vulnerable and most in need of its support. The figure for people expecting to rent into pension age will only rise. Our population is ageing rapidly, and with the chronic housing shortage, the many generations locked out of homeownership will need a more sophisticated pension system to cope with the rising cost of housing. This is the ticking time bomb of the housing crisis. As Minister for Finance, the Minister will be aware of this. I am increasingly hearing, as we all are, from people in their 40s and 50s who are still renting long after they thought they would be able to afford to buy their own home. We all know that thousands of people in their 20s and 30s, the youngest generation now adults, have already accepted they have no prospect of owning their own home. They do not see any prospect of being able to do so.

The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage stated the research published today would "help inform our policies and target our housing actions further", as if this problem had appeared out of thin air and was not a result of two successive Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Governments. It is a disgrace the problem has been allowed get so bad and that we have waited until we have 12,000 people homeless, including 175 people aged over 65 years in emergency accommodation, before we see specific action for the elderly.

Will the Minister commit to reimagining our pension system to ensure no one needs to live in poverty during their retirement and to reinstate the eviction ban so older people in particular who are renting will at least not experience the insecurity they are facing in so many ways?

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