John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to echo, without repeating, some of the points made by Deputy Hearne about homelessness. The parliamentary reporters could nearly copy and paste his words into my speech. I am not being trite in saying that. The biggest housing issue that is raised in the emails that come into my inbox every week relate to threatened evictions and homelessness. I congratulate the Minister and his team on their appointment. I welcome the election of Deputy Hearne, whose words I have read and listened to with interest. He has a very valuable and worthwhile contribution to make to this debate, to which he brings particular expertise.

It must be put on the record that we need small-scale landlords. Situations where landlords have defaulting tenants who trash their properties are happening with increasing regularity. It is an issue that is very significant and is growing. I suspect it puts people off renting out a property. In previous times, people would invest in a property and set out to be a good landlord. Many did not increase the rent they charged over the years. They are the kind of people we need. However, I have had constituents come to me whose tenants have not paid the rent for a year or 18 months and have trashed the house. There must be penalties for tenants who do that.

As I said, homelessness is the biggest issue. I will focus now on chapter 7 of the Housing Commission report and on making a special case for Dublin. The lack of affordability in Dublin, and it is pretty well all of Dublin, is not appreciated fully. I know the Minister appreciates it. I do not refer to the social housing aspect, on which we are making great strides. I refer to the affordable housing side, particularly for first-time buyers. The commission report has a lot to say about that. In my area, large numbers of apartments are being constructed but there are none to buy. If developers and councils were obligated, as a condition of development, to offer a percentage of apartments for sale, I am certain from my experience that it would release existing homes from people who want to downsize. People will not downsize to rent but they will downsize to buy.

The back garden or rear development issue is something I really encourage. One angle that was missed in that debate is that we have a growing population of adults with special needs who are very dependent on their parents. Many such parents have come to me over the years and said they will be caring for their adult child for the rest of their lives and would like an independent living space on their home site for that child. This proposal is an avenue for that.

One of the big challenges in this country is that, as a nation, we have developed a love affair with property as an investment as opposed to a means of providing a roof over our head in which we can live in comfort and security throughout our lives. I do not know how we can stop that. In Scotland, when houses go up for sale, sellers give considerable time to coming to a valuation they think is credible. If I make a bid for a house for the price at which it is put up for sale, it must be withdrawn from the market. The bid has been received and the seller has received the value he or she put on the house. This is something towards which we should consider moving. I look up daft.ie and myhome.ie regularly to see what is for sale across my constituency and all across Dublin. I will see a house for sale for €495,000 and think it is a fine purchase. Then I go back and check how much it actually sold for. This leads to inflation. We have a love affair with property as an investment as opposed to a home. There is a strong case to be made, particularly on State-owned land, for affordable properties to be passed on as affordable properties in perpetuity. We really need to look at that.

If I was starting off in life and buying a house now and if I could have a Vienna model-style apartment that I knew I would have for life, the rental cost of which would reflect the ups and downs of life in terms of illness, unemployment and retirement and taper accordingly, I would go into it willingly. Why would people hang a mortgage of hundreds of thousands of euro around their neck when they could have much more disposable income available to them if they had security of tenure over a long period?

We introduced legislation regarding dormant accounts. I know property rights are strong in this State but would it be possible to do something with dormant properties? Could we decide that the State will take properties that are dormant for a particular length of time? I refer to properties that are dormant, derelict and that nobody appears to own. Having gone through the proper legal procedures, etc., the State would take over such properties.

I agree there should be an increase in the threshold for social housing qualification. I have talked previously about the housing needs of key workers, particularly in the context of State land.

If we are taking land from State agencies, then a percentage of the residential development on those sites should be given to key workers with those organisations.

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