Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Fr. Peter McVerry's statement this morning that he supports rent regulation as an important step in preventing homelessness. As many Senators know, I have long advocated that we need robust rent control, particularly given the current circumstances, and greater measures to protect tenants and security of tenure. I am aware that the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, is reviewing the issue at the moment. Perhaps the Leader would invite her to the House to debate the issue.

I also welcome the news I received earlier today that the new tenancy protection service, which was launched in Dublin and is an initiative between the four local authorities in Dublin, the Department of Social Protection and the national charity, Threshold, has been contacted by more than 500 families who are at risk of homelessness and are being helped. Many commentators have suggested recently that there is no solution to the current homelessness crisis. Some of those statements are politically motivated. As somebody who has worked in this field for many years, I can honestly say that the situation was worse in the 1980s when few or no homeless services were available and those that were available were really not up to scratch. Therefore, we have been making progress.

While nobody is suggesting that the problem can be easily solved, tackling housing supply is an obvious answer. Keeping people, particularly families with children, in their homes is a very important step and a very good start. I welcome the success of the tenancy protection service to date.

I wish to mention some more good news. There has been an increase in housing building starts, which have risen by 132% in the past year. Unfortunately, some of the good news is tempered by analysis that many of these housing starts are being incentivised by certain developers wanting to get building projects before new more robust building standards come in. Any of us who are aware of the dreadful problems caused in places such as Priory Hall and the difficulties with pyrite could never stand over any laxity when it comes to building standards. I want us to have a building industry of which we can be proud, where the price of houses reflects the professional skills of people who have designed and produced them and do not, as they did during the Celtic tiger, simply reflect the cost of the land and the exorbitant profits made by developers in those years.

In that context I ask for a debate on the broader construction sector. In particular I would like to dust off the Kenny report published in the 1970s, which was an excellent study into how we prevent a property bubble based on the price of land.