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

I welcome the opportunity to debate Housing for All. When it comes to housing as a public good, we in the Labour Party believe in three pillars for a housing system that works for all. The first is social and affordable housing. The second is security of tenure for renters. The third is a more ambitious home-building programme. For us, the marker of the Government's Housing for All policy - its success or failure - is whether is strives to achieve those three aims and, of course, whether it succeeds in achieving them. The Government has failed that test. That is not just our view. Leaked excerpts from the Housing Commission report reference fundamental systemic failure and the need for a radical strategic reset in Government policy on housing. I was glad to hear the Minister's commitment to publishing the report in full this week. That is welcome. So many excerpts are being leaked that the report should be published today. I am also glad that the Taoiseach agreed, in response to questions I asked earlier, to a debate on the report in this House. That is also essential. We are concerned as to whether it would have been published by the Government had it not been leaked. The Minister said he has only had the report since 8 May but the question is whether it would have been published in advance of the local and European elections on 7 June. In any case, we welcome that it will be published this week.

We acknowledge schemes which have provided much-needed support for those looking to own their own homes. I want to be fair and acknowledge where progress has been made. It would not be fair to fail to acknowledge progress in some areas of housing policy. However, the reality is that large swathes of the population are still locked out of decent and affordable homes. We all meet on a daily basis those who are locked out of both homeownership and the opportunity of renting safe and secure homes. I meet constituents and people from across the country every day who are unable to secure a home of their own and who are still living in their childhood bedrooms. In some cases, three generations are living under one roof and crammed into unsuitable homes because they cannot afford to move out of the family home.

One woman I met last week told me that her daughter and her children are living in the house with her and her husband. She told me of the family friction caused where there is inadequate space and that is replicated across the country, as we know. That is why a lack of access to secure and affordable homes consistently remains the number one issue of concern for people. We have seen that in consecutive polls. Last spring's Eurobarometer reported that 61% of people in Ireland think housing is one of the top two issues facing the country, compared with an EU average of 10%. We know that not enough homes are being built. Compulsory purchase by local authorities to tackle vacancy is far too slow. I submitted amendments to the planning Bill, as the Minister knows, to try to address that issue. We welcome the Development Agency being more fully capitalised but we are still waiting for it to fulfil its targets. We want it to be transformed into a State construction company that can provide decent homes at scale.

Nearly three years into Housing for All, where are we? Notwithstanding the positive indications the Minister has given, the reality is that by many metrics the policy is failing. There has been a 63.6% increase, for example, in the numbers accessing emergency accommodation since Housing for All was launched in September 2021. More than 4,000 children are now in homelessness. Rents have shot up by 21% and house prices have risen by the same amount while wages have increased by only 10% in the same period. Evictions are up. Almost 20,000 notices to quit were served last year. On many measures and by so many indicators, the Minister's policy is failing.

I will turn briefly to the three core pillars I mentioned and talk about how Housing for All is failing on those too. On affordable housing, the first of our three pillars, the Government again missed its social and affordable housing delivery targets in 2023. Just 499 affordable purchase homes and 966 cost-rental homes were delivered. The Government fell short by more than 1,000 of its target of 5,500. There have been delays in delivery. I think of the Poolbeg site in my constituency which should by now have delivered 3,500 homes. Construction has started, which is welcome, but there have been so many delays in delivery. The Government has fallen short of its target for couples and individuals availing of the first home scheme. It has ignored the issue of affordability. Others have given examples, but let us take the example of a three-bed apartment in Citywest. Applicants for cost rental would still have to pay €1,750 per month for that apartment. That is not affordable. Given that cost renters can pay no more than 35% of their net income on rent, a minimum household net income of €60,000 per year would be required for that apartment. It is hard to see how these homes are affordable.

That highlights two key problems. The first is that the cost of building homes remains too high. The second is that cost rental figures are based on the inflated prices of a dysfunctional rental market rather than on genuine affordability for average earners. We need a new model of housing delivery. We need a radical reset to bring down construction prices, to bring down prices for purchase and rental for households and to ensure genuine affordability. Our Bill from 2021 to implement the Kenny report would represent a major step towards stabilising house prices but we have not seen take-up by Government on that.

I will turn to the second pillar, which relates to renters. Clearly absent from Housing for All is any meaningful protection for renters. I again appeal to the Minister to make progress with the Labour Party's renters' rights Bill from 2021, which the Government did not oppose, so we can see genuine protections for renters and affordable rents become the norm, as in other jurisdictions.

5 o’clock

I will finish by referring to the urgent need to increase home building targets. Members of the House are familiar with the call I made last year for a ten-year plan and a more ambitious plan to deliver 1 million homes: 50,000 new builds and 50,000 deep retrofit of derelict and vacant homes per year. The Taoiseach agreed today these targets match the ambition needed to address the housing crisis and the housing disaster. We need to see these revised-upwards targets published without further delay. I appeal to the Minister that we see revised targets published and more genuine urgency from the Government in addressing the housing emergency.

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