Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The very last phone call I got on my mobile phone before I came in here this evening was from somebody I have represented for many years, a person who has been told by his landlord that he is just about to receive an eviction notice. He is married with a large family and is now contemplating what he can do. He knows that if he looks around the Drogheda area, he will simply not be able to find, at an affordable price, the kind of accommodation that he and his family need. He receives no rental support and is working in a modest job on a modest income. The sense of hopelessness is overwhelming him and his family. He is now asking whether he can put a mobile home at the side of his mother-in-law's house or organise a log cabin. Of course, we have to advise individuals that, as per planning regulations, that is not acceptable or tolerated. This suggests the level of concern and anxiety among people because there are very few alternatives, if any. This is notwithstanding the Minister's recital of the Government's alleged housing successes, which really grate on people like my constituent who had to receive the news to which I refer this afternoon.

Five months ago, in early February, our party leader stood here and called on the Government to halt its plans to end the eviction ban. We in Labour proposed a series of constructive alternative measures that would have served to increase the number of homes available to people while giving existing tenants the continued security of a no-fault eviction ban. Even the Conservative Party in the UK has acknowledged that a no-fault eviction ban needs to be considered. The Labour Party's plea of several months ago, which has been repeated by us and others on this side of the House, fell on deaf ears. The Government pressed ahead with its wrong-headed decision to lift the eviction ban without putting any serious mitigation measures in place to stave off the inevitable wave of evictions and homelessness that would follow.

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Everything we predicted would happen has happened. It is time now for the Government to drop its hubris, admit its mistake once and for all and backtrack. There is no shame in admitting you are wrong. In fact, given the current circumstances, the Government and the Minister would gain some respect from admitting they were wrong and changing course.

The latest homelessness figures are damning and they are also predictable. Almost 12,500 people in the State are without a home and living in emergency accommodation or on the street. Well over 3,500 of those people are children. It is nothing short of a national scandal. How the Government thought lifting a no-fault eviction ban in the middle of this kind of crisis was a good idea is beyond comprehension. We in the Labour Party have suggested, quite reasonably, that the eviction ban be tied to success in addressing homelessness, with a series of metrics to be applied to addressing the problem and measuring success. That is what we proposed in the Bill we presented earlier this year in response to the Minister's decision. We proposed that, after some time, the effectiveness of his housing and homelessness strategy should be measured and, if there was a discernible reduction in homelessness, the conditions would be created whereby the no-fault eviction ban could be lifted. Lifting the ban at a time when homelessness was already on the rise was reckless in the extreme and the consequences, as I said, were utterly predictable.

The Government regularly trots out figures in this House, as the Minister did earlier, seeking to present a picture that it is doing a brilliant job on housing. The truth is that homelessness has reached unprecedented levels under the Government and is continuing to rise. The record speaks for itself and the numbers have been recited. Since the Government took office in 2020, there has been a staggering 39% increase in homelessness among children. That number represents untold misery and insecurity. The Minister knows well that homelessness does untold damage to young people's lives. It is an experience that lives with them forever.

The director of advocacy at Focus Ireland, Mike Allen, said recently:

As the eviction ban ended, we anticipated a surge in homelessness, and these figures regrettably confirm our concerns. It is terrible to see a 30% rise in family homelessness since this time last year. It feels as if the shocking monthly increases in homelessness have stunned the country and left us unable to take action.

However, we cannot be fatalistic about this. We have to hope there are solutions. From this side of the House, practical solutions and proposals are being provided on a daily basis. Action must be taken. We are in an emergency situation and an emergency response is required.

Where is the realistic and practical emergency response from the Minister? One of the emergency measures called for in this motion is a three-year rent freeze. We can argue about how long a rent freeze should last but the need for it to be enforced right now is blindingly obvious. It is a staggering statistic that for all the bluster about rent pressure zones, RPZs, and how they would bring rising rents under control, rents in this country are up 23% since the Government was formed. The average rent in Dublin has topped €2,000, while the rest of the country is seeing average rents of more than €1,500. Last year alone, rents went up 7.6%, with half the counties in the State recording rises in the double digits. I was recently informed by a constituent that she is facing a rent hike of almost 60% thanks to a bizarre anomaly that leaves her small electoral division outside all the RPZs in County Louth, even though every single surrounding town and village lies within such a zone. While renters across Europe enjoy much greater security of tenure and protection against huge rent hikes, Irish people in our rental sector are at risk. The actions of the Government have objectively left them at even greater risk.

On the supply side, the motion includes a practical measure for which we in the Labour Party have been calling for some time, namely, the extension and expansion of the tenant in situscheme. However, any such expansion must come with greater accountability requirements for local authorities. Responses to parliamentary questions put down by my party colleague and leader, Deputy Bacik, show there have been failures in how the scheme has operated, or failed to operate, at local authority level. Unfortunately, there are inconsistencies in the application of the scheme across the country. In our motion on housing last February, we called for monthly reporting on the scheme from local authorities, with detailed explanations as to why any purchase of an available rental property did not proceed. That would be good public policymaking.

The Labour Party motion, like the motion before us today, addressed the issue of vacant properties. Almost 8% of our housing stock is vacant. That figure must start working its way towards zero. The Minister must enable local authorities to commence the rapid compulsory purchase of vacant properties. National targets must be set for turning vacant properties into liveable homes. I recall the launch some months ago of the vacant homes plan for this year, which included no targets whatsoever. It is extraordinary to publish a plan without being prepared to identify targets for each local authority across the country.

The Government has spurned many opportunities to change course in its approach to housing and homelessness. Let us not allow this motion to be another missed opportunity. We presented a motion on housing four months ago that included many of the measures being presented today, and more besides. The Minister gave us the deaf ear. It often happens that if a motion is not amended, it is simply nodded through. If the Government is not in a position to oppose a Bill, such as our Residential Tenancies (Tenants' Rights) Bill, for example, it is sent off to the place where Bills go to die, never to be seen again. That is not the kind of response that is required to deal with this emergency.

It is time for the Minister to change course. I understand, appreciate and acknowledge the figures he read into the record earlier today. However, we need to be much more ambitious. The Housing for All plan was developed at a time when we did not have the data we have now following the census. I recall many of the remarks and commitments the Minister made when he decided to run down the eviction ban a couple of months ago. We all recall the first refusal proposal that was launched in a blaze of glory. It was going to be a great silver bullet, or at least a mitigating measure, for people who were about to lose their home. They would be offered first refusal, as renters, to purchase the property. It was an unrealistic policy in many ways because there are very few people who are a position to take that on in the first place. Nevertheless, the Minister proposed it. We know from media reports over the past couple of days that the proposition is now delayed and is unlikely to reach the floor of the House until at least September. The Minister is failing on every count. It is time to review his plans, change tack and accept the proposals in this motion.

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