Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Is everybody in agreement? I do not mind waiting to speak. I thank the Minister of State and the Government for bringing forward this ban on residential no-fault evictions during the winter months of November until March. As we start this debate, it is important that we all stop for a moment and take stock of the context of this legislation. The context is that we have almost 11,000 people in emergency homeless accommodation of some form or another. On top of that, more than 50,000 Ukrainians have arrived in our country and at least 45,000 of them are in some form of emergency temporary accommodation; they are not in what they would consider to be their homes. In addition to that, between direct provision and international protection roughly another 10,000 people are in emergency accommodation. When anybody is watching this debate, they need to keep it in mind that we are talking about a sizeable portion of people in our population who do not have a permanent home. That is the first thing I would say to them.

Second, I would say to them that it is important that they know that we get it. We understand how much it undermines them to be in temporary or emergency accommodation or in any form of insecurity in what passes for their homes. The Government gets it too and it has committed €20 billion to deliver more than 30,000 homes over the next four years. That is important and it is starting to deliver. I am talking to people every day who are getting notices to quit. It is incredibly unnerving and destabilising for them. It undermines their ability to go to work, school and college and to get on with their lives. We wholeheartedly welcome and support the legislation on that basis.

There is no escaping the reality that there is a shortage of supply of adequate housing out there. That is a consequence of ten years of supply being below what was required but the efforts that are being made to increase supply are significant. It is also important to recognise that there are financial supports in place. For example, €1 billion per year is being spent on the rental accommodation and housing assistance payment schemes. There was also a decision to mandate local authorities that where a rental property is being sold with a tenant in situ, it should buy that property to keep the tenant in the property and ensure they do not enter homelessness. That is a practical and pragmatic measure. From the perspective of the city council it was introduced a number of years ago, but it has been rolled out to all local authorities. After this debate I would like the Minister of State to go to the local authorities and re-emphasise that message to them. I am hearing anecdotally from some of my local authority colleagues around the country that not all local authorities are embracing that measure. Some local authorities are not taking it on.

The reality for local authorities and the State is that if you put a family into a family hub for a year, the financial cost, which is only one element of the cost, is €70,000.It is such an inadequate form of housing for a family. It is an unnecessary cost. If the local authority buys the house with the tenantin situ we can avoid the financial cost and the emotional and psychological damage done in that instance.

I hope the legislation is passed today and speedily enacted so it can come into effect and provide protection until next April at least.I support the staggered phasing-in of notices to quit. It gives some time to increase the housing stock but not enough. Local authorities say the biggest part of the delay in housing is planning. To deliver from concept to keys being handed to tenants in a new social housing development takes, they say, four years. They say they build into that a year for planning and that, where there are objections, it adds another three to four years. When this is passed, we need to tell people to remember the context of this and that these are human lives and homes we are trying to protect for people and to stop objecting unnecessarily or on a whim.

I appreciate this is a direct impingement on landlords' private property rights. They are citizens of our State and are entitled to have their rights defended. However, this is an emergency situation, as I outlined. All of the State's resources are being used, including finance and land, to address the housing crisis and to not impinge on their private property rights.The Minister of State and Government have mandated the housing commission to bring forward proposals on a right to housing in the referendum. I would appreciate if he would update the House on the progress made. The commission had a public consultation and we expect a report on that. Until we as a State decide to insert the right to housing in our Constitution, there will always be this debate and this pushback. The right to an adequate and secure home is a basic human right and should be enshrined in our Constitution.