Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

We have a responsibility to deal with this and to help those unfortunate people who have been stuck with these apartments. The questions they are asking are not overly onerous on the Government to fix.

There has been mention of supply. The Minister of State was here in 2017 when we talked about the building regulations that permitted co-living and I was the only Senator in the Chamber who spoke against it. The Minister of State said that if people do not want co-living, they will not buy the units. I made the point that they will if that is all that is going to be offered.

I understand a co-living model for visiting executives or people working in the IT sector who may be in Ireland for six or 12 months and to whom co-living may appeal. There are now significant numbers of planning applications in the Dublin region for co-living that is not for such executives but is, rather, student living for adults and is totally unacceptable. There was one co-living planning application in Harold's Cross where the size of one of the co-living units was the same size as a car parking space. Do we really want to build these tenements of the future?

I look at the statistics in the Dublin area because what happens there will be followed in Cork, Limerick, Galway and other cities. There are only two apartment blocks due for completion in which working people can get a mortgage and actually purchase an apartment. What has happened in the Dublin market is that the land prices have been inflated due to the returns on the build-to-rent and co-living schemes. In case the Minister of State does not understand the financial model of the build-to-rent scheme, it offers an approximate 5% return on an annual basis over 15 years, taxed at 20%, plus capital appreciation. The financial model for co-living student accommodation and the build-to-rent scheme has taken out the opportunity for people to purchase their own home in the capital city. That will have a long-term implication for the sustainability of the city and communities because we end up with a transient population.

Senator Murnane O'Connor, whose figures were quite correct, pointed out that Ireland has been a homeowner society and that average home ownership has been over 70% for many decades. That has led to a stable society and stable communities. The figure nationally has dropped to 60% and the figure in Dublin has dropped even further because there is absolutely no opportunity for people to buy a home. Fine Gael used to portray itself as the homeowner party and would provide people with the opportunity to own a home but its policies and ideology have changed. The Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, said on many occasions, both in this House and outside it, that we must move towards the European model and people will have to accept that they will have to rent throughout their lifetimes. If those are the policies of the Minister and Government, they require several adaptations in other policies and no such changes have been made. I totally disagree with that policy, but if one is to pursue it, one then has to also change one's policies on pensions. How does a person who is earning a good salary, on retirement at the age of 68, continue to pay rent at €2,000 per month when they are depending on a pension? Is the Government going to bring forward a drastic change in its pension policies to take account of the fact that people who are currently in employment will have to pay rent out of their pensions for 25 years at a highly inflated rate? I do not see that policy. I do not see the Government explaining that to wider society because that is the logical outcome.

The nursing home care scheme is widely known as the fair deal scheme. That plays a significant role. I am sorry to go into minor details but the Government does not seem to get it. By and large, nursing home care is funded through the fair deal scheme and, if one does not have an asset, one cannot go into the fair deal scheme.Are we abolishing the fair deal scheme so that everyone will have an equal opportunity to access nursing home care in later years? There is absolutely no sign of the Government bringing forward policies of that kind. Its policies have inflated land prices. Working people can no longer afford to buy, and those who can find there are no units to buy because the Government's policy has pushed everything into the build-to-rent and co-living markets. I would like the Minister of State to explain the Government's policies on home ownership, pensions, the fair deal scheme and nursing home care. Going from one crisis to another is not a policy. It is a recipe for disaster for future generations. That seems to be where the Government wants to go.

I wish to respond to one item on local property tax. Someone applauded the Dublin authorities that reduced local property tax by 15%. The progressive left on Dublin City Council voted to maintain the property tax at its full rate. It did not vote for a 15% reduction. It voted for the €12 million to be invested in voids, supporting the homeless and keeping the public domain clean and tidy. That is what the progressive left voted for. Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin voted for a 15% reduction in the local property tax. There is an issue around property tax, however, as 20% of all property tax paid in Dublin goes to rural Ireland. I believe in social solidarity but that money should come from the general tax take, not from property tax paid in the Dublin region. Local property tax should pay for services in Dublin. It should go towards providing for the turnover of voids and empty city council houses and to pay for services for homeless people in Dublin. I believe there should be a top-up for rural Ireland because I believe in social solidarity, but it should come from the general tax take. That is not happening.

I could go on and on about the policies that Fine Gael is following. The party has got it wrong. I will quickly refer to two of them.