Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I cannot remember the last time we had a debate on the housing crisis, the rental crisis or the homelessness crisis when the Minister for housing stayed for even half the debate. There is a studied contempt - I have said this before but it is very clear now - for the Opposition and, most importantly, for the public affected by the housing and homelessness crisis, the rental crisis and the unaffordability crisis in housing on the part of the Government. It is quite extraordinary that, in the brief time he was here, the Minister could claim the Government's policies were working and spend most of his time slagging off the Opposition rather than acknowledging the dire crisis we face.

The average rent in Dublin is now €2,100 per month. That is €25,200 per year of somebody's after-tax income. After they have paid tax, they have to pay €25,000 in rent. What does that work out at as a percentage of even the average worker's income, never mind hundreds of thousands of workers who earn way below the average? The average worker pays two thirds to three quarters of his or her income on rent. It is absolutely crucifying and unsustainable for people. Of course, if they are on a lower income than that, they are really screwed. More people are being forced to pay these rents, and rents in Dublin have gone up by 10% in the past year. Has the Government compensated for the 10% increase in the cost of accommodation in any of its budget measures? Not even close. If people are renters, they are getting poorer - it is as simple as that - and being pushed to the pin of their collars, to the point, in many cases, that they just cannot manage.

That is if they have managed to get a place at that level of rent. If they are looking for somewhere and are among the 12,800 people who are homeless, they are really screwed, unless they are right at the top of the housing list. Many people might be three, four or five years on the list. One would think that when they have been three, four or five years on the list, they would be fairly near the top. Not at all - not in Dublin. People are looking at years and years of waiting. They are then told to go find a HAP tenancy. The maximum HAP rate is just over €1,900; the average rent is €2,100. I was looking just today on daft.ie. RTB indexes are all very interesting but they are not where people go if they are looking for a place to rent because they are in emergency accommodation and reliant on HAP. They go to daft.ieand myhome.ie and look at what is available in their area within the HAP limits. The answer is nothing, or maybe one or two houses, which 200 or 300 people are trying to chase. As soon as they tell them they need HAP, they can pretty much take it they will not get the house. The landlords will not say it to them because it would be illegal for them to say it, but everybody knows what is going on.

If people could possibly be in a worse position than chasing the needle in a haystack that is a HAP tenancy in Dublin within the HAP limits, it is if their income is just over the HAP limit and the social housing threshold limit such that they are not entitled even to that. Then they are really banjaxed, like a woman I have mentioned I do not know how many times in here who has now nearly completed, with her now 12-year-old son, her fourth year in emergency accommodation sharing a bed with her son. Let us imagine that, for four years. She works for a public sector agency - ironically, looking after vulnerable children. However, because she is earning and working or slightly over the limit, there is nothing for her.

She is being left to rot in emergency accommodation. Then we get talk from the Government that cost rental is coming. However, it never comes in the volumes necessary to deal with the situation. A tiny bit comes and it is a lottery. It is like needles in haystacks for people hoping they might get one of these cost rental units. It is an absolute disaster, and 12,800 people, including 5,000 people under the age of 24 and 4,000 children, will suffer the consequences of this over the next few weeks during Christmas. Thousands more people are in chronically overcrowded conditions that are not reminiscent but a carbon copy of the sort of conditions about which people such as Seán O'Casey wrote at the turn of the last century, with two or three generations of people crammed in together. People are sleeping on couches and people are sharing beds with their children. I had another phone call today from a woman who is Ukrainian. She is sharing a bedroom with a number of children and she is trying to go out to work. She cannot believe the conditions she is living in. This is all over the place.

The Government says it will not do anything about it. At the very minimum the Government could do what Sinn Féin is asking. We would go a bit further than the motion. We believe rents should be set at levels that are affordable. This is done in many countries in Europe. Rents are set and people cannot charge more than the rate at which they are set for accommodation. That is it. Those rents are set at levels that are reasonably affordable for ordinary people. This is what should happen. It can be done but the Government will not do it because it seems the landlords have to be allowed, according to the Government, to charge these absolutely disgusting obscene rents that nobody could possibly afford or people are being crucified to pay them. Why can the Government not do what they do everywhere else in Europe? Why can it not control the housing market generally in order to ensure the supply of efficient social and affordable housing?

I went to an ICTU meeting on housing recently where a woman from Vienna spoke about how a new measure has been passed there whereby 60% of all new housing developments must be either social or affordable. Here we have 10% social and 10% affordable. This means 80% of what is being built is unaffordable. The only people who can buy these houses are big investment funds which then charge absolutely extortionate rents. Worse, in some cases, they sit on empty properties because they are buying it only as an investment. The Government is not doing anything about it either.

In addition to what Sinn Féin proposes, which is to freeze rents for three years and give more back to people in rent, we believe we should set rents at affordable levels. Obviously, the Government should introduce not only a temporary eviction ban but a no-fault eviction ban. As Deputy O'Callaghan said, in most of civilised Europe, in countries that do not have particularly left-wing governments but where they have a proper rental market, if people pay their rents they do not get evicted. They are not put through that misery. Here it is okay it seems to put people out on the street who have done absolutely nothing wrong.

The trauma that people have to go through is shocking. I am sure the Minister knows this and if he does not know it, he should. Families, elderly people, people with children and children at school are being forced through this trauma and left trapped in homelessness, often for years. It is shocking and damages the well-being and mental health of those children and families for years to come. Sometimes it does permanent damage to their sense of well-being. We are allowing this to happen but we do not have to. We could just say we will not allow this to happen. We could get the State to properly intervene and state this is not a market but a basic human right and we will make sure this right will be available to everybody so they can have affordable and secure housing.

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