Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Instead of presiding over a housing disaster, the Minister can bring in the measures following to help those in the rental sector: a three-year ban on rent increases; the creation of a refundable tax credit to put one month's rent back in the pocket of every private renter; a temporary reintroduction of the ban on no-fault evictions; an expansion of the tenantin situ scheme for social and cost rental tenants; and the use of emergency planning and procurement powers, combined with new building technologies. The latter has proven successful in the context of accommodation for Ukrainian refugees and can be replicated.

In my constituency, Sinn Féin has asked for phases 2 and 3 of the Church Fields social, cost-rental and affordable development to be started side by side. Homes in the hands of banks and receivers have been lying empty for years. Vacant homes being brought back into the housing stock would provide an additional stream of public funding to reduce the number of people in emergency accommodation. Threshold's recent We Are Generation Rent report makes for sobering reading. In 2022, just over half the respondents were aged between 35 and 54. This year, 59% of respondents were aged between 35 and 54 and 12% were 55 or older. It is getting ever more difficult to get out of the rental sector. Some 59% of renters were in employment, with just over 70% of respondents earning less than €40,000 a year. Fifty nine per cent were unable to leave the rental sector to buy their own home and 12% cannot avail of social housing.

I will finish with the words of renters. One said he "[w]ould much rather buy but renting really prevents me from saving." Another referred to it being "[s]imply impossible to raise a deposit as a single person while paying extortionate rent." Renters need more security, longer leases and more rights, as is the case in other European countries. Another renter stated:

Not to be pressurised by landlord into paying more rent and for them to stop asking us when we are leaving. They often make veiled threats and say they cannot afford to keep the house at the current rent, and we are concerned they will sell.

If the Minister will not listen to us, let him listen to the people who are experiencing this daily.

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