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

A radical strategic reset of housing policy is what the Housing Commission has called for in its leaked report, excerpts of which have been published today. I think we all look forward to reading it but it is within Government's gift to publish it. It should be published and I am glad the Taoiseach says it will be published this week. What we know from what has been leaked is that it exposes what it describes as fundamental, systemic failures in housing policy, ineffective decision-making, reactive policymaking, risk aversion, and, crucially, a housing deficit of as many as 256,000 homes. The commission's report appears to confirm what we have all known for some time, that the Government's half-measures and ineffective policies are not working. They are not delivering homes for all those people locked out of housing today. Doubling down on those ineffective policies is making matters worse. We are in a housing crisis. It is a housing disaster, as our President, Michael D. Higgins, has said. The commission has said, in leaked excerpts, that emergency action is needed.

Where is the sense of emergency or urgency from Government? The housing crisis is the civil rights issue of this generation, yet week in, week out, all we hear from Government is self-congratulation, saying that its policies and housing plans are working. I am sure that, this afternoon, we will hear from Government Ministers and TDs in this Chamber about just how well they say Housing for All is working. That is not the reality. The Housing Commission has exposed the reality. It is not an Opposition party or ideological body. It was set up by the Government. I think the Taoiseach acknowledges that members of the commission comprise figures from the trade union movement, developers, academics and experts who have nothing to gain from gilding the lily or bringing personal bias. They are clear that we have some of the highest levels of public investment in housing in Europe, but our outcomes are among the very worst. In other words, the Government's housing policy has failed. The report confirms what some of us have been saying all along. Developer-led planning does not deliver the homes we need. Weak tenants' rights protections hurt renters and do not free up supply. Low, insufficiently ambitious building targets are damaging the wellbeing of our population.

It appears the report has been with the Minister for housing for a number of weeks now. This begs the question of whether publication was delayed because of the elections next month. Was the report going to gather dust on Custom House Quay until after 7 June because the Government was afraid of what it says? Was it deliberately delaying publication? I am thinking back to when the temporary ban on no-fault evictions was lifted and we saw RTB figures. The statistics on evictions in the fourth quarter of 2022 were delayed until after the lifting of the ban, some weeks after the original planned date for publication, as I found out by way of freedom of information. It looked very much as if political pressure had been applied to the RTB to delay publication.

We again asked whether publication of this important Housing Commission report - this damning indictment of Government failure - was also to be delayed until after the elections on 7 June.

I welcome the commitment that it will be published this week. Will the Government undertake to facilitate a Dáil debate when it is published? When is the Government going to start taking the necessary emergency action that the commission has recommended?

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