Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Éireann: notes that:

- the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and former Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O'Brien TD, repeatedly promised to deliver 40,000 homes last year but spectacularly failed, with just 30,330 homes delivered;

- housing delivery is not just slowing down, it is reducing, with a drop in housing delivery of nearly 7 per cent between 2024 and 2023;

- members of the Government have briefed the media that without a dramatic reset of housing policy, there is virtually no chance of reaching their own housing targets;

- the Taoiseach has stated this reset will involve "very politically difficult decisions" and said the Government needs to "pivot more strongly to the private sector";

- in an interview on RTÉ radio on 9th February, 2025, the Taoiseach signalled the imminent end of Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs), saying the Government could replace them at the end of this year;

- within 24 hours of these remarks being made, the share price of the State's largest private landlord, Irish Residential Real Estate Investment Trust (IRES REIT), soared to its highest level in eight months;

- rents are already at record highs, having more than doubled in a decade, and increased by 34 per cent in the lifetime of the last Government; and

- 83 per cent of private tenancies in the country are in RPZs;

acknowledges that:

- a report published last year by the Central Bank of Ireland entitled "Institutional Investment and Residential Rental Market Dynamics", found that 78 per cent of the homes owned by investment funds were bought as existing properties;

- the same report found that institutional landlords increase monthly rents by about 4.1 per cent more than other landlords;

- since 2021, when the previous Government introduced a 10 per cent stamp duty levy on the bulk purchase of homes, investors have bulk bought half a billion euros worth of residential property; and

- in Budget 2025, the Government increased the stamp duty levy, which does not apply to apartments, from 10 per cent to 15 per cent;

further notes that:

- in 2020, then Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe TD, said investment funds were engaging in "aggressive behaviour to avoid tax" and said the Revenue Commissioners were investigating and compiling a report;

- the report from the Revenue Commissioners was never published, with the Finance Minister claiming in the Dáil on 13th February, 2025, that "tax compliance issues" had been dealt with via legislation;

- however, since 2020, investment funds controlling more than €28 billion worth of Irish property have reduced their tax payments by half, from €74 million to €32 million;

- the proportion of new housing available for sale has nearly halved in the last six years;

- in Dublin city in 2023, 94 per cent of all new housing was apartments, 98 per cent of which was solely available to rent; and

- first time buyers bought just 75 new homes in Dublin City in that year; and

calls on Government to:

- close loopholes which allow investment funds aggressively avoid tax;

- increase the stamp duty levy on the bulk purchase of homes to 100 per cent, and extend it to apartments;

- instead of introducing further tax breaks for developers and vulture funds, access European Union streams of finance like InvestEU and the European Regional Development Fund;

- introduce a savings scheme like the French Livret A model, to leverage some of the €160 billion in Irish household savings, to invest in affordable housing;

- provide increased and early-stage finance to approved housing bodies and local authorities, so they can ramp up the delivery of genuinely affordable homes to rent and buy; and

- retain RPZs, until there is an alternate system ready to put in place which can protect renters.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach Gníomhach. We are bringing forward this motion today because the housing crisis is a catastrophe and an emergency. The Government's plans are failing disastrously and we need a new approach. We are calling on the Government to be brave and ambitious and to take new emergency measures that can actually deliver affordable homes on the scale needed to solve the housing crisis, which is now corroding the very fabric and social cohesion of Irish society.

While I thank the one Member of the Government who is here, it is deeply frustrating that the Minister for housing, Deputy Browne, is not here to engage with the Opposition and answer questions. It is an insult to the people of Ireland that the Minister for housing does not attend the Dáil for a debate on the issue for which he is directly responsible. The Government has been asking us to bring forward solutions and then when we do, the Minister responsible does not bother to turn up. Not being here to discuss the most pressing issue facing this country indicates a lack of openness to new ideas and a lack of seriousness.

Today, there are half a million adults stuck living in their childhood box rooms, infantilised and lacking hope of starting their own independent lives. Almost 1 million people are living in the private rental sector. They are struggling with rents and the fear of eviction, which has been worsened by the Government's statements that rent caps could be removed at the end of this year. Some 14,864 people are living a daily trauma of homelessness, of whom 4,510 are children who are suffering adverse childhood experiences with lifelong impacts from growing up in homelessness. There are also tens of thousands of people not counted, measured or considered by our State who are stuck in hidden homelessness. The Government's housing policies are causing a mental health crisis. We do not have enough public health nurses to provide developmental checks and the very construction workers we need are emigrating because they do not see a future in this country where they can have a home of their own.

I will give a few examples of the lived reality of this social catastrophe. A mother living in emergency accommodation in my constituency became homeless just before her baby was born. The baby is now a toddler. That baby was born into emergency homeless accommodation, which is a traumatising situation for her and her young son. What have we become as a country when we have normalised children being born into homelessness? I was contacted by a housing association in rural Ireland and told of a young couple, a secondary school teacher and a construction worker, who are living in a damp mobile home. They do not qualify for social housing and cannot afford to rent a place. A teacher in her early 30s shared her housing situation with me. She is still living at home after nearly seven years. She and her boyfriend were saving to buy for years but their relationship of more than ten years has broken down. She said that her chances of buying now as a single person are shattered from little to nothing. The housing crisis has had a truly devastating and harmful impact on her. It has deprived her of the opportunity of independence for years on end, which has made her depressed and constantly anxious about the future. She feels tired at the end of each day as they are understaffed and lonely at the weekend because her friends have migrated. It is soul-destroying for her to spend all of her 20s with her parents while working hard and paying tax to a Government which does not spend her money on affordable housing.

Beyond that, the Government's housing crisis is having profound social implications. Research published last week showed that 69% of 25- to 34-year-olds say the cost of owning a home is causing them to delay getting married or having children. It is utterly heartbreaking to hear these stories. When will we say that this is enough?

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael housing policy is dragging us back to the 19th century. The supposed parties of home ownership have brought about the largest collapse in home ownership levels among young people since the foundation of the State. They are turning our younger generations into long-term tenants of the big landlords once more, only this time it is the US, German and Irish wealthy funds. They have become the parties of the large landlords. Despite the stamp duty measures implemented, institutional investors have continued to buy up existing properties. The build-to-rent apartment developments were never included within the restrictions. Funds have had free reign to snap up tens of thousands of apartments being built across Dublin. In 2023, institutional funds bought 6,203 newly completed apartments, while ordinary home buyers bought just 846. The Government claims that rents rising further will incentivise a supply of expensive rental properties that will then lead at some point in the future to rents falling. Where is the evidence that an increase in supply of institutional investor funds build-to-rent housing leads to a fall in rents? A report of the Central Bank found that institutional landlords increase monthly rents 4.1% more than other landlords.

The Government's housing plans were sold to the electorate on the basis of a misleading claim that its policies were working. We hear today that it is saying to a generation stuck at home to try a cabin out the back. The Government is giving investor funds tax breaks and higher rents and sheds out the back for our locked-out generation. This is "let them eat cake" stuff, only for the Government it is "let them live in sheds". The Government has spent the past ten years incentivising the private market and investor funds through tax breaks, developer levy waivers and help-to-buy schemes, but they are not working. We need a new direction.

The Social Democrats is bringing this motion today because we have outlined serious solutions that could solve this housing crisis. First, we are calling on the Government to set up a State savings scheme that would leverage the €160 billion that is in private bank accounts to enable private investment, which is what it would be, in social and affordable housing, just like in France with the Livret A scheme. We are saying we do not have enough funds to finance housing, but that is €160 billion which could be leveraged.

We are also calling on the Government to allocate a significant proportion of the budget surplus this year, which will be approximately €9 billion, into directly delivering affordable housing via housing bodies and local authorities. Providing early-stage finance for housing bodies and local authorities means they can ramp up the delivery of genuinely affordable homes to rent and buy, rather than the affordable housing we have seen come out today in O'Devaney Gardens on public land where €400,000 for a two-bedroom apartment is to be considered an affordable home. On what planet is the Government living for that to be considered affordable? We have put forward a proposal for State funding of €2.3 billion per annum that would deliver an additional 10,000 affordable purchase and 5,000 cost-rental homes on top of current targets.

Finally, we call on the Government to retain the rent pressure zones until there is an alternative system in place that can protect renters. The Government should make a clear statement that rent pressure zone caps will not be lifted at the end of this year, given that rents are already unaffordable for renters and renters are experiencing huge anxiety at the suggestion that the rent caps could be ended this year.

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