Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

notes that: — the housing and homelessness crisis is getting worse;

— house prices, rents, council waiting lists and homelessness are all rising;

— the Government continue to miss their social and affordable housing target, targets that are too low to begin with;

— tens of thousands of homes are lying vacant and derelict in every city and county;

— the lack of affordable homes, particularly for essential workers and low paid workers, close to their workplaces, is impacting on the delivery of public services and undermining economic competitiveness;

— an entire generation of young people are locked out of affordable homes with the highest levels of emigration since 2015;

— growing numbers of people approaching pension age are living in expensive and insecure rental accommodation fearful of their future;

— the student housing crisis continues to deepen;

— the housing needs of Travellers, people with disabilities, older people and other marginalised communities continue to be ignored; and

— tens of thousands of homeowners and tenants continue to live in unsafe homes impacted by defective concrete block and Celtic Tiger era building defects; further notes that: — housing is a human right;

— the cost-of-living crisis is putting ever greater pressure on workers and families while access to key public services including healthcare, childcare, disability and special needs services places even greater financial burdens on communities;

— after 4 months in office it is clear that this do-nothing Government has abandoned communities;

— the Governments failure to invest in critical infrastructure such as water, electricity and under resourcing of the planning system is delaying the delivery of much needed homes;

— the chronic underfunding of our local authority housing and planning departments which must be reversed for councils to play their key role in meeting public housing needs; and

— instead of adopting a radical change of housing policy as recommended by the Housing Commission, they are threatening to remove protection for renters, proposing even more tax breaks to vulture funds, and further delaying the delivery of much needed social and affordable homes; and calls on Government to agree that: — emergency action must be taken to address the deepening housing and homeless crisis including;

— a dramatic increase of investment in and delivery of public housing to meet social and affordable housing need;

— stronger taxes on vacancy and dereliction and greater use of Compulsory Purchase Orders to bring empty homes back into use;

— real action to protect private renters through freezing and cutting rents and no changes to Rent Pressure Zones that would increase rents;

— an emergency response to rising homelessness, including reintroducing the ban on no fault evictions; and

— fully restore and increase funding for vital homeless prevention schemes including Tenant In Situ and Housing First.

As we speak, there are several thousand people outside, comprising trade unionists, workers for homeless charities, housing rights activists, students, political parties, renters, aspiring home buyers and people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. I left them moments ago. They are gathered together as part of the Raise the Roof campaign to declare very clearly and loudly that like its predecessor, this Government's housing policy is failing, enough is enough and it is now time for emergency action. That is why Sinn Féin, joined by the Social Democrats, the Labour Party, People Before Profit-Solidarity and other Independents have come here today with a joint motion. The joint motion is very clear and straightforward. It calls on the Government to take a number of emergency actions now to reverse the damage the Minister and his colleagues have been doing and continue to do to people's housing situation.

In advance of the finalisation of the Government's plan, it needs to increase investment in and the target for the delivery of social and affordable homes. It is not just about money; it is also about reform in how those homes are delivered, a problem the Government continues to conceal from the House but everybody knows exists. The Government needs to take more direct action to support local authorities, in particular, to be able to bring vacant and derelict council and private homes back into use. Stronger taxes on vacancy, more efficient use of compulsory purchase orders and better funding for local authorities for bringing homes back into use are required.

Instead of doing what it has done last week and will do in the autumn, namely jacking up rents in the private rental sector even more, the Government should protect renters from rent increases and reduce the cost of rents while increasing supply of genuinely affordable social and cost rental homes. Instead of cutting funding for vital homeless prevention schemes, one of the Minister's first acts, he should instead restore and increase funding for the tenant in situ scheme, the housing first scheme and others. The Minister also needs to reintroduce a temporary and emergency ban on no fault evictions now, because the number of people entering emergency accommodation is too great and too few are able to exit.

That is the core of the motion before us today. That is the motion that the thousands of people, supported by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, the entire trade union movement, civil society and others are supporting as we speak.

The Minister has been in office for five months and we can already start to see the damage he and the people around him are doing to our housing system. I have already mentioned that he has cut funding for vital homeless prevention schemes. For the life of me, I cannot understand how that could be his first act. He has completely ignored the Housing Commission's call for a housing delivery oversight executive with emergency powers, underpinned by legislation. The Minister is giving us a toothless tiger in the form of a housing activation office, and he could not even put the head of that body in place.

In what is probably one of the most bizarre spectacles I have experienced in my time as a TD tracking Simon Coveney, Eoghan Murphy and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, the Government has introduced the most haphazard change to the rent pressure zones, an imperfect protection in the first place. The Government has changed its story day after day and the fact the Minister is shaking his head means that I wonder whether he fully understands the implications for tens of thousands of renters of what he intends to do. Some rents will increase immediately and others over time at an even greater rate than has been the case.

All the while, house prices, rents and homelessness are rising and the Government continues to fail and slow down the delivery of social and affordable homes. People have had enough. They are taking to the streets in Dublin today, and at the National Monument in Cork at 2 p.m. Saturday. The Community Action Tenants Union, CATU, will hold a protest in Dublin on 5 July. There will be more and more until the Government changes the policy or, ultimately, people change the Government. It is one of the other, and people have come outside the House today to say they want to change and the Government either listens or it goes.

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