Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I second the Bill. I welcome the Minister of State to the House and say, "Well done", to Senator Warfield for his action on this issue. All Members have been aware of the prevalence of this issue since the downturn in 2007 or 2008. Families had to move back in together, with children moving back to their parents' house or trying to find rental accommodation which has become increasingly scarce, particularly in our cities and especially on the east coast, where it is out of the reach of most young people.

In 2017, we became aware of the problem of substandard accommodation. At that stage, Rathmines was a kind of bedsit haven - it still is, to some extent - for people from the country who came to Dublin for a job. The accommodation in those bedsits was dubious, to say the least. However, we have come a long a way in terms of hygiene standards, personal space, healthy living and healthy homes. We expect far more than putting up with what is on offer. However, some cases have seen the re-emergence of the almost slum-like conditions that were once prolific in Dublin. In the early 1900s, the city was known throughout the world as the slum capital of Europe.

Those conditions are again evident in some properties in Dublin, as was particularly revealed by the 2017 "RTÉ Investigates" television programme on the issue. Unfortunately, the three houses investigated in that programme were in my constituency and the neighbourhood of Crumlin. There were 64 people living in a house, with 16 people shoehorned into each dirty single bedroom. In an unauthorised development in Kilmainham, Dublin 8, bunk beds took up every available space, with 30 or 40 people sharing the property. It was eventually shut down because it was an unauthorised development but its owners certainly got their money's worth out of its temporary occupiers. In Rathmines, 23 women shared a two-bedroom house. These cases date from last year and the year before, not back in the days when we shut up and put up with such conditions because we did not expect to have our own space. Having one's own space is not a luxury. Rather, it is an acceptable standard which has been deemed healthy to have.

If I am paying money for accommodation, I expect standards to be maintained. The clear standards that are in place have been breached on many occasions, as revealed by inspections. How much clearer can one get than a report that states there is immediate danger to the welfare and safety of tenants in a building? There are flagrant abuses of advertising standards on websites such as daft.ie, Facebook and spotahome.com.What it says on the tin is not what we get inside. What we get inside are stuffy, unhealthy, mouldy and damp small spaces where people are meant to sleep, eat and live. We will not accept that any more.

There are unfit rental properties in the city and people are making a fortune out of them. These people run around unfettered enjoying their ill-gotten gains from various homes in the rental sector. There are multiple breaches of fire safety, never mind overcrowding. There are no escape routes or fire alarms. I understand local authorities, which provide housing assistance payments and rent supports, endeavour to inspect homes for breaches of fire safety and other safety standards, such as rat infestations, but they are overwhelmed. Last year, only 4% of rental properties were inspected. Of this miserly 4%, 70% failed to meet the standards set for the payment of public moneys to landlords through the housing assistance payment and other rent supports.

The resources of local authorities have been cut to the bone. I do not blame the local authorities in that they do not have the resources. We need to bolster these resources because the situation is becoming progressively worse. We are trying to play catch-up all the time but unscrupulous landlords have ways and means of staying under the radar. The same property reappears on the same advertising sites with a different slant on it and perhaps a different number on the door. These landlords use various means to get away with duping people into believing they are getting reasonable accommodation. People are looking for reasonable accommodation, not top-end luxury. We need more resources and a greater willingness to enforce regulation. The purpose of this Bill is that certain advertisements would be called out and banned.

I am a Dubliner and this practice seems to be prolific in the city. I went on to daft.ieto see a shed being offered after a woman showed it to me. She was mildly intellectually disabled and she rented it at €800 a month. She explained to me that she was sick all of the time because she had to go to the main house to access toilet, bathroom, water and cooking facilities. This slipped through the net. Trying to make a complaint and get somebody to do something about it was impossible because many people stated they would take the accommodation. Such is the desperation in the rental market. Not only do we have utterly unsuitable accommodation and unscrupulous landlords, we have competition among desperate people trying to find somewhere to live.

Senator Conway-Walsh asked me to raise student accommodation and rural families paying way over the odds for substandard accommodation. They allow their little ones travel to the big smoke to live a life but the accommodation is detrimental to them and their health. It is their first time away from home and they want comfort. We all want home comforts and we all deserve them, especially when we think we are paying for them.

I cannot see why the Minister of State would be so mean as to block or delay this legislation. It makes sense. It has taken years to get here. I commend Senator Warfield on tabling the Bill for discussion.