Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim céad fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Cé go bhfuil muid ag fáiltiú roimh an Bille seo agus go bhfuil muid ag tacú leis na gnéithe a bhaineann leis, caithfear an rud seo a chur i gcomhthéacs agus a rá go bhfuil polasaí an Rialtais i leith tithíocht shóisialta ina phraiseach i ndáiríre. The social housing system is in crisis. Almost 100,000 households are on local authority waiting lists. Almost the same number are in receipt of rent supplement and emergency social welfare payments for those who are unable to pay their rent in the private sector. Central and local government spending on social housing building, buying and maintenance has been slashed since 2008. Never has housing need been so great and never has the cost of housing been so low. However, the housing policy of the Government, like the last one, has been characterised by inertia and inaction. It is an indictment of the Government that after two and a half years in office this is the first significant legislation it has brought forward for consideration. While Sinn Féin will support the Bill, I am compelled to use this short opportunity to highlight the broader failure of Government housing policy.

For some years the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, supported by two Governments, has been abandoning the direct provision of social housing by the State.

In its place they have been pushing private sector solutions to the housing crisis. It is an issue which is particularly difficult in rural areas. The list of schemes and acronyms grows ever longer. First, there was the rental accommodation scheme and then the long-term leasing scheme. To these were added the applicant-sourced housing scheme. Let us not forget the incremental purchase scheme or the choice-based letting scheme. As each Administration adds to the number of schemes, the number of households languishing on social housing waiting lists grows ever longer. There is an urgent need for a new approach to social housing. Innovative funding approaches are available if central and local government have the policy imagination and political will to develop them. Whatever happened to the social housing bonds promised in the programme for Government? Why is the Government failing to develop innovative ways to draw down Housing Finance Agency funding to take advantage of the great value for money in the market? I am interested in hearing the Minister of State's answers.

We need as a matter of urgency a new approach to housing. We must revert to direct provision of social housing by the State and develop new funding models similar to those used elsewhere in the European Union. Crucially, we must get people off rent supplement, local authority waiting lists and the streets into long-term suitable and sustainable accommodation. The Bill represents an improvement on the current system. It is welcome that it provides elected members of local authorities with a greater say in rent setting. It is a pity the Minister of State did not use the Bill as an opportunity to achieve greater standardisation and harmonisation of rental systems across the State.

Senator Mary White raised an important point. We hear that the property tax will be passed on to tenants in quite a number of cases. It is hypocritical to bring forward a Bill which takes on board people's ability to pay, while the property tax does not take this into consideration at all. I hope the Minister of State indicates that she will direct local authorities not to add the property tax to the rent of tenants in the relevant housing. Harmonisation would have been relatively easy to achieve and would have improved the social housing system significantly. Having said that, Sinn Féin is happy to support the Bill, notwithstanding that it proposes only modest changes to the current system.

Táimid ag tacú leis an mBille ach níl anseo ach sop in áit na scuaibe, teastaíonn gníomhaíocht i bhfad níos mó maidir leis na daoine ar fad atá ag fanacht ar na liostaí tithíochta. Housing is the issue raised most often with me by constituents, in particular in relation to the fact that local authorities are not building any housing stock worth talking about. It is a serious issue on which I await the Minister of State's remarks with interest.