Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)

This a very important, timely motion. As a group of TDs on the left, we were party to it. The situation is a housing emergency; everybody accepts that now, with 15,500 plus in homeless accommodation and huge waiting lists for social housing. County Laois, which has a fairly good record for social housing, still has a housing waiting list of 1,600 households. Low Government targets and projections are missed by a country mile. There is a huge need for investment in infrastructure and water in which we are falling way behind. Those who are above the income limit for social housing cannot get or buy an affordable house or get a cost-rental. This is really important. This is a group that is being left behind, a group of low-paid workers who are being caught and have no options. They are trapped forever in private rented accommodation with no control over the rent they are charged. What is being provided is drip-feed affordable housing and even fewer cost-rentals. Ministers, that needs to change. Workers and families are paying more than half their income in some cases to rack-renting landlords and we need to change that. What do we get? What did this Government do last week? It will force measures through this House that will drive already skyrocketing prices into the air. The Government shows no regard for struggling renters, or else it seems to miss the point.

New apartments will not be covered by the 2% rent cap that is supposed to bring prices down. Is the Government kidding? A landlord with three or fewer homes can continue to charge what they like and continue with no-fault evictions. When a tenancy ends voluntarily due to a tenant buying a house, moving into a social house or going to another rented home, the landlord can charge what is called “market rent.” This means they can follow the already galloping rents that are there.

What are students to do? They seem to have been forgotten. They are going to return in September. What are they facing come September and the September after that? The prices they are being charged are astronomical. We need to do something for students.

While it is welcome that 55 municipal districts not covered by RPZs are to be brought into the loop, though the Minister forgot about that last week until he was reminded, even with existing RPZs, landlords have found ways around them. We can take any town in the county, for example, Port Laoise or Mountmellick and places like that. In Port Laoise, rents have shot up way beyond 2%, to multiples of that. The proof is in the actual rents being charged. We must bring in proper rent limits and increase the supply of cost-rental and affordable housing. We must also step up the tenant in situ scheme and invest in critical infrastructure such as water supply and electricity to ensure new homes can be brought onstream.

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