Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Over the past year, problems relating to poorly-built apartments during the boom have been raised on the Order of Business and in Commencement matters but we have no holistic approach to the issue. Only recently, residents from the Beacon South Quarter protested outside the Dáil because they are being asked to raise €50,000 to €60,000 per household to fix the problems resulting from the lack of regulation and the lack of inspections during the building boom. Many decisions were made by past Governments to lower standards and these people are suffering from the fallout from that. In an apartment block in Dublin 8, residents are being asked for up to €28,000 per unit to fix fire issues. We need a holistic approach to this and to get a solution, even if it is just in the form of low-interest loans for residents to deal with these issues. The Housing Finance Agency lends at 1% and the residents should have access to that to fix the problems of the past. They do not see the recovery because they have such enormous bills to get their homes back into a position where they can live safely. I ask for a debate, not on individual complexes but on how we can resolve this issue.

I campaigned long and hard on short-term lettings and I thought we had a solution when the Minister announced we would have legislation by Christmas, to be implemented in June, to control short-term lettings.We have not seen that legislation. I was on several websites yesterday and saw units which are now back up and taking bookings for all of next summer. It appears the platforms themselves no longer believe there will be legislation and regulation and are taking holiday bookings all the way through next summer. We need clarity on this but I hoped we would have had it before Christmas. We were promised clarity before Christmas but we are still waiting for it. We have had the spin in the media but we have not seen the draft legislation.