Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. In order to tackle the housing crisis, of which every one of us is acutely aware and, I believe, wants to solve, the boom to bust nature of housing must be eliminated. Cost rental is the key that will free us from this boom-to-bust housing model that has dominated Ireland. Given time, it will calm the market across the board and allow people to have a forever home. It allows people to rent their home for the duration of their lives, at a rate that depends on their income. They can rent a home in which they can have children and grow old in the same house with no need to worry that a landlord will evict them or change the terms of the lease. The cost, though predicted to be 25% below market rate, will not be linked to the market rate in this Bill, which is critical. It will be based on the cost of construction and maintenance over the life of the property and other costs, as well as what the tenant can afford to pay. That is real security of tenure. That is the Vienna model of cost rental that the Green Party has been harping on about for decades. This Bill is beyond the proof of concept of cost rental. It enshrines that model in law for the first time ever.

Over time, the cost rental model will calm and lower rents overall in the market because rents in the private sector will be brought down in tandem. They will have to fall to compete. This Bill, through the provision of cost rental and local authority housing, is doing what has been dearly needed in housing policy in Ireland, namely, restoring the State's rightful place at the centre of delivery to help curb the worst excesses of the market and to provide housing for those who need it.

I know and hope that a review will be carried out to examine how the scheme is working. One of the areas I will be interested in hearing about is the succession plan for cost rental tenancies and properties.

In terms of homelessness, which is slightly different but related to the housing crisis and has been exposed to a horrifying extent as never before over the last couple of years, if one asks people on the ground what will help to bring people out of homelessness, one of the key responses is supply. According to the most recent report published by the Simon Community, there were two homes eligible for HAP in Galway city, and another two in the county. That is shocking. I know the issue only too well, having sat on the housing committee of the public participation network for a few years before becoming a councillor.

Addressing social housing is this Government's number one priority. As a Government, we have committed to ensuring that all housing from now on will include a mix of private, social and affordable housing, and in cost rental developments, there will be a mix that includes social housing. The Government committed to meeting a target of providing 50,000 social homes over its lifetime. While the pandemic has hampered construction, taking the response of just one approved housing body as an example, it has over 1,500 homes under construction.

Affordability, both for rent and purchase, will simply not be achieved without this Bill. Just ask a family or a single person who is couch surfing. Young people cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel but I believe this Bill provides the way. According to a report compiled by Dr. Padraic Kenna in association with the Irish Council for Social Housing, only the top 10% of earners can truly afford to rent their own home in Dublin. The equivalent figure in respect of Galway and Cork is 20%. Not being able to afford a home is not just about being homeless. It is also related to food and fuel poverty. People are living in these homes and paying these rents. The Government has committed to ensuring people have affordable homes.

Short-term and medium-term measures in the Bill will change the very nature of the housing market. They include a cost rental intervention to have forever homes in the rental sector and a commitment to increase social housing through the use of creative measures to finance the building of social housing and Part V interventions. These interventions will be introduced on Committee Stage. They will transform the housing model. Everybody deserves to have an affordable home. Without the interventions in this Bill, it simply will not happen.