Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming in again. He has had a long session with us today but we are delighted that he is here to hear us out. I am delighted to second this Bill which I believe accelerates measure and improves existing housing policy at a time of a national housing crisis. This Bill will improve the cities and towns we live in. Above all, this Bill will make a real difference to the thousands of people who desperately need long-term decent homes in which to live out decent and ordinary lives.

There is no doubt that we are in the midst of a catastrophic housing crisis. I was just reading about a family with a child with autism which is being evicted. One can imagine the trauma in that family home tonight. Nationwide, there are families living in bed and breakfast accommodation, young people sofa-surfing and men and women who have spent all their adult living in homeless hostels and emergency shelters that have become the only homes they men know.

At the end of December 2016, there were 7,148 men, women and children in emergency accommodation across the country. At the end of November 2016, there were 142 people without a place to sleep in Dublin city. Rough sleeping in Cork increased ninefold in the four years from 2011 to 2015 from 38 people to 345 people. Ordinary families, young children, single people, renters, people in mortgage arrears, people in the repossession courts, people with the roof over them sold on to or by vulture funds or speculative landlords, people with mental health problems and addictions, Travellers and those wishing to leave congregated settings - these people are all in housing crisis. All need long-term homes and need them now. This extraordinary housing crisis requires an extraordinary response. The Minister knows and has demonstrated through the actions he has taken that we need to act swiftly and surely with measures that will kick-start the use of derelict and vacant sites. While I appreciate the good work done to date, in particular the Rebuilding Ireland plan, I believe we need to go further and act faster. This Bill addresses both dereliction in our towns and cities and the scandal of empty properties.

As a policy intervention, our Bill proposes five things: to increase the derelict site levy from 3% to 5%; to create a publicly accessible register of these derelict sites; to restrict termination of tenancies in buy-to-let dwellings; to remove the minimum size restriction for the vacant site levy; and to bring the levy into effect sooner, by the end of 2017 instead of 2019. I believe these are clear and sensible proposals that will change how land owners view and treat derelict and vacant sites. Thousands more people could be living in our city and town centres if we tackled dereliction.

When Dublin City Council audited vacant and derelict sites in central Dublin, it counted 282 sites making up 61 ha of land. That is nearly seven times the size of St. Stephen's Green. That is a huge area of unused land. Turning such sites into homes would go a long way to addressing homelessness in Dublin city and county.In a submission to the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government, Dr. Lorcan Sirr from DIT and others noted that the vacancy rates are twice what should be expected. The 2016 census revealed that we have 198,358 vacant housing units, excluding holiday homes and derelict buildings. It is shocking that we have 7,000 people in emergency accommodation and almost 200,000 vacant houses. In the town where I grew up, on the main street in Macroom, there are 210 vacant properties according to the 2016 census, including the six-bedded home in which I grew up. There were ten of us in the family. That is a huge number of properties for a small town. The 210 houses could be homes for people on the social housing waiting list.

Dereliction is also having a big impact on the face and character of our towns and cities. Buildings are literally falling down. Shop fronts are rotting and there are empty spaces and eye sores. These sites have been forgotten about and completely abandoned. Our Bill makes it clear that a local authority may use compulsory purchase orders to buy such vacant sites and turn them into homes.

There is a fantastic group of mostly young people in Cork city, acting under the banner of Reimagine Cork, who have taken it upon themselves to clean up derelict sites. They have created a mini park on Kyle Street and repainted shop fronts on North Main Street. We should not leave it up to volunteers to ensure the character of our cities and towns is preserved. Owners need a push to use these sites. We need to remind owners of their responsibilities. We need to empower local authorities. We need to ensure there is an adequate penalty for leaving sites vacant and derelict, and I believe our Bill provides just that.

We need to remind ourselves of the impact this legislation will have on people. Over the course of last year, there were over 2,500 children homeless and living in emergency accommodation. These are children with nowhere to play. The Minister has children and knows every child has the right to play and should be able to do so. The children have no place to call their own and are moving from B&B to B&B. Young lives are stuck in limbo, thus compromising their education, well-being, mental health and life chances forever.

All over the country there are empty sites without homes, homes without people, and people without homes. The actions we have proposed in this Bill will help change that. When I worked for Cork Simon, with local authority support and CAS funding we bought up derelict sites in the city centre and turned them into lovely city centre flats. I often meet a man who made his home in one of those flats. He was a victim of institutional abuse and was a street drinker. When I met him, he had stopped drinking after a near-death experience but at that time his only home was the emergency shelter, where he had been living for ten years. This lovely man is now sober and fit and has a job and home. I meet him occasionally on his bike or doing ordinary things like going shopping for vegetables and fruit in the English Market. This man's life has been turned around because he has a home of his own, and one of Cork's derelict sites has also been given a new life. I recently passed it. It was freshly painted and the brass door knocker was all shiny and polished. It was unlike some of the adjacent sites, which were dark, depressing, dangerous, vacant and derelict.

Our Bill will give greater security to tenants living in buy-to-let properties. If a house was bought as a buy-to-let property, there should be no reason a tenant should be affected if it is sold to another investor. Up and down the country, families, couples and single people are being evicted simply because one investor has sold the property to another. Owing to the impact of the housing crisis, home ownership has gone out of sight for many people in their 20s and 30s. My daughter is one of those who live in fear because her landlord in Dublin is about to sell the property in which she lives. That is no way for people to have to live. These people deserve more rental security and this Bill provides just that. To sum up, this Bill will enhance and intensify housing policy and existing powers. It will improve the places and communities in which people live, help to end homelessness and have a real impact on people's life chances, as in the case of the man to whom I referred, the child with autism who is being evicted tonight and even my lovely daughter. It will help us to get out of this unprecedented housing crisis. I urge my colleagues from all parties and none to take up these good ideas and support our Bill.