Paul Bradford (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State with responsibility for housing, Deputy Coffey.

I raise the issue of the future of the private housing rental sector in this country. I am doing so, in one sense, in the context of the immediate and current crisis but what we need is not simply a debate and a partial or short-term solution to the crisis, but a more long-term strategy about the future of the private rental sector in this country. While a Commencement debate here in the Seanad is a positive start, I will certainly be asking in the broader confines of Seanad time that we will have a more substantive debate where ideas and suggestions can be put forward.

If we are to plan for a proper housing market in this country in the future in a sustainable and affordable fashion and respond to different housing types and needs recognising that housing solutions of the 1970s and 1980s are not entirely appropriate to the Ireland of today, we must recognise that there must be a major place, as part of the national housing strategy solution, for the private rental market. It is fair to observe that the rental market and private tenancies up to now have been very much the second-rate cousins in policy in the housing Department. Perhaps it is part of the Irish mentality, shared, perhaps, in Britain and a few other countries worldwide, about the fixation with house ownership. I refer to the concept that unless one owns one's house one is somehow not a full participate in society. We need to radically overhaul that concept. We need to look across the continent of Europe and beyond. We need to look at dynamic societies where, not a minority, but a majority of citizens and families live in private rented accommodation long term and have an alternative use for the capital sums which otherwise would be invested in home ownership. Such sums or the leftovers can be used, for example, for education or setting up small enterprise. We have a society where people invest a considerable amount of their disposable income in the concept of homeownership and we must look beyond that as we plan a housing strategy for the future.

It is also fair to observe that, from the perspective of the equation between landlord and tenant, it has become much too easy to see the landlord as a type of Scrooge figure extracting the last euro or cent from an unfortunate tenant, and that is not always the case. There are many thousands of good landlords across the country just as there are many tens of thousands of good tenants. We need to set in place fair but firm legislation on the rights of landlords and tenants. Beyond that, we need to change the thinking about home ownership to ensure that the concept of long-term rental accommodation with secure tenancy and fair and balanced rents and rent reviews are part of the housing agenda. We must move away from previous housing policies of building to sell and of encouraging people to buy to very different solutions.

Threshold is holding a conference today. I heard some of the advance media presentations. It is putting forward some interesting ideas. We have to approach this issue from a blank canvas and attempt to change the thinking of Irish people on home ownership and where families live and how communities thrive and interact. The private rental sector and the rental market, whether private rental or social housing, should play a much more significant role. It requires planning but above all, it requires a change of attitude and a change of emphasis from the Department down through the planning sector to the construction industry. We need to engage with the public in order that it will see a different concept of living for communities and families into the future.

I look forward to the initial response of the Minister of State but it would not be fair of me to expect a comprehensive solution today. I am aware of the short-term issue he is attempting to address and that is necessary. I ask the Minister of State today and, I hope, in a full debate in the near future to look beyond the short term to the medium to long term to begin the process where our housing stock and home ownership will be looked on differently and where the rental sector can play not only an economic but a social role in building the country.