Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Recent commentary talks about a housing crisis in this country. The term "crisis" does not describe what so many families and individuals are experiencing because what we have is a housing emergency. No other word can describe it. It is not a crisis when over 15,000 of our citizens, including over 4,500 children, are living in hotel rooms. That in itself is an emergency.

However, this emergency is not limited to that totally unacceptable figure. It also includes working families who cannot get onto the housing list or have been taken off housing lists and cannot access the housing assistance payment, HAP, because local authorities are assessing income from last year. They are also taking into account temporary payments like jobseeker's benefit which, as we all know, is temporary.

It is an emergency because 70% of 25-year-olds are stuck living at home with their parents. It is an emergency for young people like Alex, who I met at a public meeting on Monday night. He told me that housing is a major concern for him and peers. He made a 150 km round trip each day to attend college, a total of 80,000 km in travel over the four years of his study, simply because he could not find any accommodation and any that was available was overpriced. He recounted a number of similar stories from his friends, all of whom he said are worried about their housing future in this country.

It is an emergency because a joint project for assisted housing in my home town to be built on council land has not seen a sod turned in ten years, despite funding announcements. Sheltered housing in the same town, which could house ten older people, has been held up by two Government agencies, namely, the HSE and the local authority. For over two years, they have been unable to agree on a contract or lease. Why does it take two years for two Government agencies to agree on a lease? I could name other projects in other towns and I am sure my colleagues will do so.

It is a housing emergency because there are no rental properties available to rent in Kildare South. Many landlords continue to refuse HAP and a number of tenants are afraid to report poor and dire living conditions to their local authorities because if they do so, there is simply no other place to rent.

I am aware that many local authority houses are taking years to return to council stock. I am aware of houses purchased by local authorities that stand idle years after their purchase, many still at the so-called first stage of planning. Like colleagues throughout the House, I am aware of derelict houses throughout the State in many housing estates which are lying idle during the housing emergency. I am aware of the attempts of many local authorities to compulsorily purchase these houses. Unfortunately, I am too aware of the time it is taking to secure such homes as potential family homes.

This is a housing emergency because the housing list for one-bedroom units in my local authority is around 20 years long. It is taking 20 months for a warmer home scheme to be put in place. After shouting in the Seanad for a review of the housing adaptation grant for over four years, the review has not gone far enough and homeowners cannot adapt their homes. The Government's Housing Commission called for a radical strategic reset of housing policy. Recent commentary by the Taoiseach and many Ministers seemed to suggest that this radical reset is to go back again to massive tax reliefs for developers, returning us to the ghost estates of the past and rising house prices for the highest bidder. It will once again remove from young families and working people the possibility of owning their own home or even affording private rent.

I wish the Minister of State well in this housing emergency. I join with one of his party's TDs, who yesterday in this House called for a Covid-like response to housing. For me and my party, that must be State-led through a State housing agency. It is time we treated this housing crisis as the emergency that it really is.

See this speech in context