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

I thank Deputy Bríd Smith and her colleagues for tabling this motion, which I am glad to support on behalf of the Labour Party. I echo the words of Deputy Ó Broin in pointing out to the Government that, unfortunately, this is another example of a cynical procedural manoeuvre that we are seeing used all too often to delay and effectively neuter Opposition Bills by pushing them off, putting them into lengthy processes and delaying their Second Readings for 12 months and so on. As such, this motion is a sensible move to try to get around that procedural manoeuvre. The manoeuvre is usually used to delay Opposition Bills the Government supports. This is a slightly unusual situation, though, as the Government inadvertently did not oppose the Bill. That is all the more reason to use this motion to ensure the Bill makes progress, given its importance.

Shelter is among the most of basic human needs and human rights, yet thousands of people in this country are deprived of a safe and secure home. Many more are in insecure housing, with adults still living in childhood bedrooms, couch surfing or paying exorbitant rents. I have just come from a meeting where, as often happens, an individual took me aside and told me about a personal difficulty in accessing rental accommodation. This individual was in a good and well-paying job but was unable to find affordable accommodation to rent in Dublin city. I hear this constantly from my constituents and from people around the country.

The Government has failed the 12,847 people who are homeless, including almost 4,000 children. Each of these has an individual story of homelessness and the deep human trauma that results from that. These are the people living in State homelessness services, but we know there are many more.

The Government justifies the shameful decision to lift the temporary no-fault eviction ban on the basis it was not working and homelessness was continuing to rise with the ban in place, but we were told during the ban's duration that it was working in keeping the numbers from rising further. Since the ban was lifted, we have seen those numbers increase, just as we predicted. None of us takes any pleasure in the fact our predictions have materialised. The same predictions were made by NGOs and front-line workers in homelessness services. Despite that, the Government proceeded. It did so without any evidence basis. The Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, may be aware I received a reply to a parliamentary question at around the time the ban was to be lifted that revealed that a five-month seasonal weather forecast was the sole evidential consideration underpinning the decision to lift the ban. The decision was made on the basis the winter had seasonally come to an end. There was no attempt to measure the impact of the ban or to assess whether its lifting would lead to the increase in homelessness that has since occurred. No meaningful contingencies were put in place either despite Government policies. Some of the policies the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage announced in March to justify the ban's lifting have still not come into effect. Many of us in opposition have been trying on behalf of constituents to see how schemes like the tenant in situscheme will work in practice, but we are getting very little by way of substantive answers.

The Labour Party made a constructive suggestion to enable an evidence basis for the continuance of the ban at least until homelessness rates had reduced for four consecutive months. It was a reasonable proposal but one the Taoiseach stated he, unfortunately, could not accept. Government figures have made it clear there is no intention even to examine the idea of an evidence basis for resuming the temporary no-fault ban. Some comments from members of the Government have revealed they do not understand what a no-fault eviction ban is or that they believe it is somehow an outlandish measure that should only be seen as an emergency one-off. The reality is that, far from being outlandish or radical and with the tentative Government support we saw, restrictions on no-fault evictions are the norm in comparable European countries. We should be learning from other countries. In Finland, for example, homelessness has fallen sharply following the introduction of a housing first policy, whereby people living in homelessness receive shelter and counselling with no preconditions and four in every five people make their way back into stable living and to having safe and secure homes of their own. Such a programme provides people with dignity and a fair start and is an investment in society. Given we have such a crisis in supply and affordability, we need to see such measures being adopted alongside an eviction ban until supply increases. We all agree supply has to increase. That is the real answer, but when we in opposition make constructive proposals calling on the Government to increase the supply of housing and act with greater urgency and ambition, we are met with derision and dismissal from the Government benches. That is unacceptable.

Like many others, I attended briefings this morning from IBEC and Chambers Ireland. I will attend a Focus Ireland event shortly. What we are hearing from employer bodies, business organisations, homelessness organisations and civil society groups is that housing supply needs to increase, the Government needs to take radical, urgent and ambitious measures to increase housing supply, and its targets for delivery are still too low. Boasting about achieving 30,000 new builds per year when we know the real level of need is closer to 50,000 is not good enough. The knock-on effect of this on the rental sector has meant an increase in evictions and homelessness.

Turning to international comparators, let us take our nearest neighbour, Britain. Extraordinarily, the secretary of state with responsibility for housing, Mr. Michael Gove, who is hardly a socialist ideologue, has now recognised the need to tackle the blight of no-fault evictions. As such, even senior members of the Tory party are considering measures like this. Our Government should be doing the same. Unfortunately, it has again taken a dismissive approach towards constructive Opposition proposals.

I wish to mention the Labour Party's Housing (Homeless Families) Bill 2017 on prioritising the rights of children in homelessness. The Bill has been pushed, promoted and endorsed by Focus Ireland, but the Government has stalled and dismissed it. It has dismissed our renter's rights Bill and the Bill Deputy Bríd Smith and her colleagues introduced. This tactic of dismissing and delaying has become the Government's modus operandi. It is no response to the lived reality and hardships of our constituents. Where we make constructive and sensible proposals, we should get better engagement from the Government. It appears a deeply cynical manoeuvre to use procedural measures to delay Bills that have been supported by the Government through Second Stage, even if that support was inadvertent in this Bill's case. The sort of procedural tactic we are seeing the Government use in respect of Bills stymies the legislative process and undermines the democratic will of Members, who have voted to see Bills go through Second Stage. It stifles our constructive critiques of Government policy because it neuters the Opposition's ability to introduce Bills. Introducing and debating legislation should be our bread and butter. Instead, we are seeing stalling tactics and cynical manoeuvres. That is no answer to those 12,847 people who are experiencing the deep trauma and distress of homelessness.

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