Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The right to housing is a human right, enshrined in Article 25 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UN rapporteur on the right to housing reiterated that position, saying that although increasingly viewed as a commodity, housing is, most importantly, a human right. The Housing Commission report seeks to vindicate that human right. It says that housing must be a unique, national priority. It talks about the failure to treat housing as a critical social and economic priority and goes on to say: "Only a radical strategic reset of housing policy will work." It further says: "It is critical that this housing deficit is addressed through emergency action."

It has been said that the housing crisis has the potential to undermine the fabric of Irish society, but it already has and continues to do so on a daily basis. We have over 15,000 homeless people, 4,000 of whom are children. The 2030 target to eliminate homelessness has been binned by the Minister. We have 120,000 families on council housing waiting lists. We have skyrocketing, exorbitant rents and up to 500,000 adults living in their childhood bedrooms. We have a huge cohort of families locked out of home ownership. They are over the limit for council housing but do not have enough income to get a mortgage. They are condemned to poverty, paying skyrocketing rents for evermore. We also have the emigration of our brightest and best to the US, Australia and Canada.

The Housing Commission report means that we need a declaration in law of a housing emergency. We need a housing emergency measures in the public interest Act modelled on the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act. What would such an Act do? It would address housing through emergency action, as recommended by the Housing Commission. It would housing-proof all Government actions. It would establish a national infrastructure investment fund or Government bond to help fund housing. It would stop all evictions, require house sales to tenants in situ, freeze and reduce rents, and empower councils to purchase, by agreement or compulsorily, and repair vacant houses for letting to families on waiting lists. It would allow for the commencement of a massive social and affordable housing construction programme. Nothing short of this will solve the housing emergency.

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