Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)

Housing provision is so dysfunctional across every part of the sector that it is no exaggeration to say it is an emergency. Day after day, I have to inform people who are on the housing list for six, seven, eight or nine years that they have many more years left on the list. That was not the case four or five years ago. The situation has grown worse and worse and I see nothing the Government is doing that will improve it. There are families so long on the housing list that children who were toddlers when they went on the list are now adults. Unable to move out, they are penalised because they are working and their wages push them over the income limit. One family I know of had been 16 years on the housing list before being removed by the council because they went over the income threshold.

People who are renting are terrified, waiting for a termination letter from their landlord. Some landlords are using Part 4 of the Residential Tenancies Act to evict people and then double the rent. The new rules for renters will cause huge distress and concern. It seems there will be a free for all within a six-year period and the RPZs will not be worth the paper on which they are written.

Students should be excitedly looking forward to a new chapter in their life as they go to college, with many thousands moving to a new city. However, foremost in their mind is the question of where they will live and how much it will cost. I heard a student yesterday telling RTÉ about the €800 cost per month for accommodation from Monday to Friday. The students are kicked out of the property on a Friday by the landlord, who then rents it out on Saturday and Sunday before moving the students back in on Monday. That does not happen in a functional housing market.

In my constituency, the starting price in a new development down the road from me, Luttrellstown Gate, is €520,000 for a three-bedroom house, with the cost going up to €800,000 for a four-bedroom home. In the Government's eyes, affordable housing starts at approximately €400,000. One could not write this stuff. The Government has let this generation down and by the looks of its new rent strategy, it will also let down the next generation. I ask everyone who cares about the young people who cannot rent or buy to go out to Kildare Street on 17 June and make their voices heard outside these buildings.

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