Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Broin of Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. When it comes to housing as a public good, the Labour Party believes in three pillars of a housing system that will work for all. The first is social and truly affordable housing, the second is security of tenure for renters, and the third is a truly ambitious home building programme. The marker for us of the success or failure of the Government's Housing for All policy is whether it strives to achieve those three aims and, of course, whether it succeeds in achieving them. The Government has failed these tests. We are joined in that view by the Housing Commission, front-line organisations - we heard from the Simon Community today, too - and by all those at the coalface of the housing crisis, including families in emergency accommodation, adults spending their 20s, 30s and 40s living in their parents' house because they cannot afford to either rent or buy, and people who are languishing for many years on the housing list. I could go on.

When we talk about the housing crisis, we refer to a fundamental, systemic failure. We need a radical reset of Government policy on housing. We acknowledge schemes that have provided much-needed support for those looking to own their homes. I want to be fair and acknowledge where progress has been made. It would not be fair to fail to acknowledge that progress. The reality remains, however, that large swathes of the population are still locked out of decent and affordable homes.

We all meet daily those who are in this situation. I have been holding advice clinics in my constituency, which I share with the Minister, for ten years as a councillor and TD. The majority of cases that come to me have always been about housing, but in the past three years, the majority of those housing cases are young people who may have a deposit saved but still feel they are a million miles away from owning a home. They are wondering whether they should take the €15,000 or €20,000 they have scraped so hard to save for a number of years, invest it abroad and start a new life. That is the reality of the housing situation.

In some cases, up to three generations are living under one roof, crammed into unsuitable homes because they cannot afford to move out. Kids are trying to raise their kids in front of their parents - not an easy task and not something that makes for a comfortable living situation, no matter how well you may get on with your family.

Crucially, we are still waiting for the Government's home building targets to be revised upwards. Perhaps this will be a general election announcement or ploy. These targets have been low for a number of years. Deputy Bacik received a concession from the former Taoiseach almost a year ago that building targets needed to go up. The same concession was echoed by the former Minister for Finance and the incoming Taoiseach. We were glad to see that acknowledgement when it came, because when we first called for an ambition of at least 50,000 new builds and 50,000 retrofitted homes every year, the reaction of Government TDs was laughter and derision. Now they know the reality we face, that this is the scale of the issue.

The lack of access to secure and affordable homes has been the number one issue for many years and remains such. It also has an impact on a multitude of crises in other areas. Teaching positions are vacant because teachers cannot afford to live in Dublin or other major cities. There are vacancies in our healthcare sector because healthcare workers cannot afford to live or cannot find accommodation near where they work. In spring, a Eurobarometer report showed 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%.

The need for housing and the crisis in housing has not been met with the ambition or urgency required to solve the issue. Not enough homes are being built and even the low-hanging fruit is not being grasped. Compulsory purchase by local authorities to tackle vacancy is far too slow. The Labour Party submitted amendments to the planning Bill to constructively address the issue but those amendments were ignored. We support the LDA being more fully capitalised but we can and should be more ambitious for it. We want it to be transformed into a State construction company that can provide decent homes at scale, as well as decent reliable jobs in the construction industry.

We are three years into Housing for All and, notwithstanding the Minister's perpetual optimism, it is failing on too many crucial metrics. Last week the CSO reported that house prices have soared by over 10% in the past year and are now more than 13% higher than their peak before the crash. Rents have shot up 27% since Housing for All was launched, while wages have only increased by 10%. Most damningly, homelessness has gone up by 27% since September 2021, when the policy was launched. Nearly 4,500 children now live in emergency accommodation. The vast majority of people accessing emergency accommodation come from the private rental sector. Evictions continue to rise, with almost 20,000 notices to quit served in the past year. I do not know how anyone can conclude anything other than total policy failure when taking these metrics into account.

On affordable housing, the figures released last week show there is not a hope the Government will reach its inadequate targets this year. Just 499 affordable purchase homes and 966 cost rentals were delivered in 2023. In the first half of this year, only 166 affordable homes and 392 cost rentals were delivered. This is beyond unacceptable.

Leaving aside delivery, there appears to be a deep misunderstanding in government of the word "affordable". Take for example a three-bed apartment in Citywest. Cost-rental applicants would still be paying €1,750 per month for that apartment. I do not see how that can be considered affordable for people on average incomes. Cost renters cannot pay more than 35% of their net income on rent, meaning a minimum net household income of €60,000 would be required for that apartment. Two issues arises from this: first, the cost of building remains far too high; and second, cost-rental calculations are based on dysfunctional market prices rather than genuine affordability. We need a radical reset in housing policy to bring down construction costs and prices for buyers and renters, and to create a system of genuinely affordable housing.

I again appeal to the Government - or rather the next government - to implement the Labour Party's acquisition of development land Bill and implement the Kenny report to bring down the cost of land and take a major step towards stabilising the housing crisis.

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