Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I hope I get back those ten seconds. As I have not had an opportunity to do so in person, I congratulate the Leas-Chathaoirleach on his elevation. I thank Senators for their support and queries and I will deal with as many of them as possible in the short space of time I have. I assure Senators that I spoke with the Leader a number of weeks ago and I intend to come here for a specific debate on housing. I have immense regard for the Upper House and have served in it. Some people may have missed my initial remarks, when I indicated that this is emergency legislation and it is not ideal. I have been in the Oireachtas since 2007 and I get that sense of frustration; no slight at all was intended, however, but because of the urgency required, we have had to deal with these measures accordingly.

I intend to have legislation on housing initiated here in the Seanad as well. I take it we will have further rent legislation early in the new year and I have already discussed this with our Chief Whip and the Leader. It will be done in agreement with the Senators, as it will be important legislation.

There were many queries that I will deal with but I will put this legislation in context first. I say respectfully that we must be responsible in our commentary, and most people have. In July, I brought legislation to the Dáil and my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, brought it here to the Seanad. It was the Residential Tenancies and Valuation Bill 2020 and it moved from what had been a blanket eviction ban, as legal advice was that such a measure was legally unsound and was not on a statutory footing with primary legislation. Some people wish to ignore that but one cannot ignore advice.

It was interesting,as last night in the Dáil, Senator Warfield's colleague stated that we do not really have to abide by the advice of the Attorney General and we could just pass the Bill, and it is fine if somebody wants to bring it to the Supreme Court. It was a really interesting insight into the way Sinn Féin might progress legislation if it was in government. It would do what it likes, having no regard for legal advice, and if somebody wished to challenge it in the Supreme Court, that is what would happen. It was a striking insight into the party's mindset.

I am talking about responsible commentary. In July, I was told that when we moved to more robust measures, we would see a tsunami of evictions and homelessness would skyrocket. A number of people on the left and hard left said that. I am thankful that did not happen. This is not to be complacent but we can see the measures are working. We have 364,000 tenancies, comprising private tenancies, approved housing bodies and student accommodation. Less than 2% of those end up in dispute, and a quarter of that portion ends in dispute because of rent arrears. We should put all this in context. Sometimes, the commentary from those who seek to stoke and feed off fear is that if measures are removed, there will be a massive push to evict people. Between 29 March and the end of July, only 42 notices of termination from over 300,000 tenancies were issued, leaving a compliance rate of 99.98%. That is independent research from the RTB.

This does not mean we do not have to strengthen tenancy protection where we can, going right back to the 2004 Act. The July Act, effective from 1 August, brought in some permanent measures, including the rent arrears piece mentioned by Senator Dolan. From the very first notice of arrears, a copy is sent to the RTB and the Money Advice & Budgeting Service is brought in straight away. By the way, Sinn Féin and others opposed those measures, which is fine, as they are entitled to do that. We also increased the arrears notice period from 14 days to 28 days. I take the point made by Senator Higgins that this should be 60 days, which is fine.It must be recognised, however, that we have gone from 14 to 28 days, and the notice must be copied directly.

For those who did not support the legislation in July, we now know how many warning letters are being issued. These are facts from independent research and not surveys on party websites. From 2 August to 30 September, 844 warning letters, for 28 days, were issued. We know that figure now and it is good that we know it. Those letters must be copied and then direct engagement is made with tenants to ask how it would be possible to help. Any tenants experiencing difficulty paying their rent have the protection provided by the self declaration provision in place. Some people have tried to twist the small numbers involved in seeking that protection. Up to 30 September, 174 self-declarations were sought and received, and there were no refusals, out of 182 notices of termination. If there is a desire for there to be more disputes, that is fine. Then people would have to seek self declarations and protections. In an ideal world, however, we do want people to have to go to that stage.

Is there an information gap? Yes, there is and has been such a gap. That is why, from last week, 425,600 individual notifications and letters went out to tenants and landlords concerning their new rights and responsibilities. That information is in the sheet being published by the RTB, which is going out, and there is also a TV and radio campaign, as well as information in local and regional newspapers and on local radio. That is all important. We all have a role to play in disseminating that information. I say that because those are real protections and they are in place.

Many queries related to the broad context of housing. I am not ignoring them, and we will respond to them in writing. The budget we passed just over two weeks ago contained €3.3 billion for housing. That is the largest housing budget ever passed. What we all want from the house building programme are secure homes for people. Senator Higgins is right that this issue is about security of tenure. It is not just about purchase, but about rent, and concerns public and private homes and affordable homes. Next year, we will deliver 12,750 public social homes. Of those, 9,500 will be built by the State. That is the largest in any single year in the history of the State. That is what we are doing. We are bringing forward affordable rental measures, which I will be bringing to this House, for a national scheme. We will bring that in, get it in place and we will have 400 new tenancies and a new mode of housing in 2021.

We are also going to bring forward an affordable purchase scheme, which we are working on with colleagues and all stakeholders. I believe in home ownership, and every survey done has shown that the preferred mode of housing tenure is ownership. That is the most secure form of tenure. That is not to say we should not allow people to rent or that there should not be a secure rental market. There are those, however, who have come very late to the game in the context of home ownership and who have published affordable housing schemes where those involved will not even own their own homes in the end. Under such schemes, 50% of those people caught in the affordability trap would be left out. I refer to those renting and paying 50%, 60% or 70% of their net take home pay in rent, and who cannot get mortgages. Those people will be left out because, in the proposed scheme to which I refer, arbitrary caps of €80,000 were placed on incomes of couples. That makes no sense.

There are some people who want everyone to be corralled into one type of housing. That is not our vision, and not my vision as Minister. This about providing a secure rental market and good public housing stock that will come on stream for our people, and ensuring that we drive down the homeless numbers.

I turn now to the points made by Senator Keogan. This is an important issue and there is no complacency regarding homelessness. Every week, I have a homeless delivery team meeting. People have mentioned Threshold, and I deal with that organisation every week. It is an organisation which is a superb advocate for its cause, and it was involved with the legislation we enacted in July. That was opposed by others, it was their right to do so and that is fine. I also deal with the Simon Community and all the other similar organisations, because they all do magnificent work.

We are still driving down homeless numbers. There has been a decrease since the new measures have come in. We will publish more figures next week regarding the monthly homeless figures. We hope to see that downward trend in numbers continue. Behind all those figures are people and families. They are not just numbers, and we know that. The number is below 8,700 now, but it is still too high. Any child in emergency accommodation should not be there. We have our winter plan in place and we must be cognisant that we must protect our homeless community, particularly through this pandemic. I visited many of the emergency accommodation facilities available across the country. There is capacity. I say that to people as well. Every single night in recent weeks, in all our major cities, there has been emergency bed capacity. There are beds available for people. We must look at that and see how we can improve it.

In the budget, this Government also committed to expanding the Housing First approach, particularly for our most vulnerable citizens, including those suffering from addiction and-or mental health issues. I dealt with many of them as the chair of my own regional drugs and alcohol task force. We are going to expand that approach further. We have provided funding for that approach because it is an excellent scheme, and we must protect it.

I have gone on a bit, but I will conclude. It is a pleasure to be here. Senator McDowell raised a specific point that we will look at. Many issues have been raised, and we will revert in writing to all the Senators. I am not expecting that everyone will welcome this Bill 100% and state that there are no other measures they would like to see. That is well and good, but it is important that this Bill is passed. I thank the House for its forbearance and co-operation. It is not ideal that we must truncate our debates like this, but I assure the House that, with its permission, I intend to initiative housing and rental legislation in this Chamber. We will move it on and respond to individual queries as we go.