Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)

I move amendment No. 1 to amendment No. 1:

To Insert the following after "rolling planned maintenance will support this":

"commits to:

— reducing the turnaround time for vacated local authority homes to new tenants from the current average of eight months, to a two month average turnaround time; and

— ensuring that local authorities be permitted to apply to the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant for the purpose of refurbishment of vacant council houses.".

This amendment seeks to bring vacant council property homes back within two months, as well as ensuring that local authorities can apply for, and avail of, the vacant property refurbishment grant. The housing failure has had a catastrophic impact on the citizens of this country. In just a few short years rents have doubled right across the country. In Claremorris, County Mayo, I recently spoke with a constituent whose rent between 2019 and today has more than doubled. Young people are emigrating at increasing rates, and last year at rates we have not seen since the recession. Bidding wars have become the norm. I ask for the Minister of State's attention briefly. There was a time when you would look at Daft and have an idea how much the cost of a house was. Now, you have to ring the auctioneer to see what price above the asking it is due to sell for. I was listening to what was said in the council chamber in Mayo County Council this week and a Government councillor said that homelessness in Mayo is now a new and almost commonplace phenomenon.

There is an elephant in the room with this debate. I have listened to hours of debate and with the odd exception all of the House is focused on one dimension of this equation. That is the supply side. However, the truth is that this housing crisis cannot be solved by addressing one side of this equation. It is important to note that the demand side must be addressed and managed as well. It is an incredible situation where we have had hours of debate today, and weeks of discussion on housing, and there is so little mention of the demand that is driving. It is a fact that this Government is failing to meet its modest targets. Meanwhile, the growth of the population and the demographic pressures are really quite significant. I was struck by a recent Savills report that stated the population growth to housing delivery is 4:1, which ultimately means that for every house built the population is rising by four. This is the worst in terms of western countries. In Britain, it is 2:1. In Australia, it is 1:9. The USA is 1:5 and Germany is almost 1:1. In Ireland, it is 1:4. In the past 12 months, 150,000 immigrants arrived in Ireland, while circa 30,000 citizens emigrated from the State. Ireland is experiencing one of the worst levels in the area of supply and population growth. We are taking a small step forward, but two steps back. It is important to be honest. We cannot solve a problem that we do not fully understand and that is the part of this equation that is being completely lost on this Government. It must be said that it has been utterly lost on this Government and on much of the Opposition.

I was struck by Dan O'Brien's research. He is a leading economist in the country and he outlined the figures with regard to work permits. I went back and looked at more data. Data from 2015 and 2016 shows we were issuing approximately 10,000 employment visas. Between 2022 and last year, we were issuing approximately 40,000 visas per year. I have no doubt that many immigrants are providing tremendous value to the economy and the labour market is particularly hot. However, we should recognise that the demand is making the housing situation worse, and I ask the Minister of State to engage with the Minister for trade to see if we can reduce these numbers of visas. Can we, for example, provide visas for the essential services of the economy like healthcare and construction but manage that system better? We certainly need to. The same trend exists with residency permits. I do not have time to go into full detail. There is an inevitability to this housing crisis. On the one hand, the Government has failed to address the issues and build houses in this State and address the obstacles and bottlenecks it has consistently presided over. On the other hand, it continues to mismanage the demand. I ask the Minister of State to work with the Minister for trade on this. I have the data here. The trends are here. They say pictures do not lie, but they are significant, and the demand has been rapid in recent years. I would appreciate it if the Minister of State would get back to me on those points.

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