Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Seanad Éireann notes that: - the private rental sector is dysfunctional with ever-increasing rents and decreasing standards;

- the average State-wide rent now stands at €1,823 per month; and the average new rent in Dublin city is €2,349, €1,999 in Galway city, €1,907 in Cork city, €1,907 in Limerick city and €1,537 in Waterford city – an annual increase of 6.8 percent State–wide;

- 21 counties have experienced double-digit rent inflation, with Donegal at 20 percent, experiencing the biggest hike in the State;

- renters do not have the same protections as those who can afford their own home;

- too many people cannot access secure or affordable accommodation and are forced to live in overcrowded, inadequate, or otherwise unsuitable accommodation; notes with deep concern that: - according to Eurostat, 68 percent of adults aged between 25 and 29 still reside in their childhood bedroom;

- a report by the National Youth Council of Ireland in 2022, shows 7 in 10 young people are ‘considering emigrating for a better quality of life than in Ireland’;

- between 1st July, 2022 and 30th June, 2023, 21,525 Australian Working Holiday Visas were issued to Irish citizens aged between 18 and 35; further notes that: - Government policy favours subsidy to big developers and institutional landlords, over local authorities and approved housing bodies;

- investment funds pay virtually no tax but charge sky-high rents;

- the increased activity of investment funds, such as bulk-purchasing of properties, rented back to people at extortionate rents;

- local authorities do not have the capacity or resources to fully assess and inspect private rental properties and therefore cannot be effective in ensuring compliance with the standards; calls on the Government to urgently: - ban rent increases for three years;

- reintroduce the temporary ban on no-fault evictions until there is a meaningful reduction in the numbers of people in emergency accommodation;

- legislate for tenancies of indefinite duration, as promised in the Programme for Government, to provide tenants with more security;

- increase targets and accelerate the delivery of social and affordable housing;

- publish a plan to deal with the disorderly exit of accidental and semi-professional landlords from the rental market;

- update the minimum standards as set out in section 65 of the Housing Act 1966, and provide for robust penalties for breaches relating to overcrowding;

- adequately fund local authorities to ensure that 25 percent of all private rental properties are inspected once a year, so that renters can be sure that their accommodation is safe;

- bring forward measures to effectively ban investment funds from bulk purchasing homes that otherwise would be available to home buyers and local authorities or approved housing bodies which must include increased stamp duty on such bulk purchases.

By every measure and with every report, the housing crisis is worsening. Across the State thousands of young people, workers and families are stuck paying sky-high rents with little or no security of tenure. The average rent per month in Dublin city centre is now €2,349 while in south Dublin it is €2,628. The situation is no better outside Dublin. In County Donegal, there has been a 20% increase in rent since this time last year. It does not take a financial adviser to know that rents like this are simply not manageable or sustainable for the majority of people whose voices the motion represents. The housing crisis has gone on too long and it has gone from bad to worse. Too many people are paying too high a price for decades of failed Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael housing policy. It has to stop and it has to stop now. Families, workers and young people need and deserve secure housing and affordable rent. Our motion would do three things to stand up for renters. First, it would ban rent increases for three years and reintroduce the temporary ban on no-fault evictions. This will provide much-needed security for workers and families under financial pressure. Second, it would introduce measures that prevent investment funds from pushing up house prices and snapping up houses from under the noses of families, workers and housing authorities. Third, it would call on the Government to dramatically increase targets and accelerate the delivery of social and affordable cost-rental homes and social housing, as this is the only real solution to the crisis in the private rental sector. Social and affordable housing is the answer.

Perhaps the most glaring and galling consequence of this housing crisis has been the rise in homeless. However, as my colleague Deputy Ó Broin has often said, the question that looms behind these figures is, "Why?" Homelessness is not a force of nature. It is not an act of god. It is the entirely foreseeable consequence of policies that fail to address the increase in the number of families becoming homeless, or to accelerate the exit of those people from emergency accommodation. The policies needed to address this are not complex. The solutions are there and Sinn Féin for its part has continually proposed solutions in our alternative budget. They are also sitting here in today's motion. The first is to put a month's rent back in the pocket of every renter across the State. The second is to reintroduce the no-fault eviction ban. These measures would give breathing space to those adults and children who are currently at imminent risk of homelessness or presenting into emergency accommodation. The Government should use that time to engage with the opposition and Sinn Féin and with the NGO sector to develop broader policies to address the housing crisis. However, people should not be forced to fall from the brink into homelessness while we are developing these broader policies.

In 2021, the current Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, said the Government wanted to stop the practice of institutional investors and vulture funds buying up homes that could be bought by families, or, in some instances, by local authorities and approved housing bodies for social and affordable housing. However, just a matter of weeks ago we learned that an investment fund snapped up 85% of an entire housing development in Balgriffin, Dublin 17. These 46 homes could and should have been available for workers and families to buy, to live in and to call their own. They are instead now bring rented out at €3,100 per month. This is not the first time this has happened. Funds are bulk buying in counties Cork, Carlow, Kildare, Meath, Wicklow, Roscommon, Galway, Limerick and Westmeath. The most worrying thing is this was entirely predictable because the Government chose to ignore our warning in 2021 that the 10% stamp duty it was introducing at the time was insufficient to deter investment funds from snapping up these homes. Government Members stood in the Dáil and assured us these measures would work, yet a few weeks ago the Department of Finance told Deputy Doherty that investment funds had snapped up 1,200 homes and paid the 10% stamp duty. How many more homes have to be snapped up before the Government will listen and take action?

I will speak briefly about enshrining a right to housing in our Constitution, which the Seanad has supported by way of a motion. As we prepare to go to the polls this week for a referendum, and mindful that the Housing Commission has completed its work on a referendum on housing, I understand that the majority report of the commission was delivered to the Minister in September 2023.A minority report representing the dissenting views of two members of the commission was delivered in November. In his response, will the Minister of State please outline why there has been such a delay in publishing the reports? Furthermore, can he indicate a timeline for their publication?

In reality, while the measures I have spoken about will address the immediate, short-term crisis in housing, the only long-term solution is for the Government to stop relying on the private rental sector to meet its social and affordable housing needs at a time that sector is itself in deep crisis. To address the housing crisis, the Government must increase and accelerate the delivery of much-needed social homes. Sinn Féin has set out a very clear roadmap to achieve this. We are not possessive of that; it is not a State secret. The plans are there for all to see and for all to follow. The problem is not that it cannot be done, but that the Government refuses to do it.

In conclusion, only the change of housing plan a Sinn Féin Government will bring can start to undo the damage of decades of bad Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael policy, but that does not mean the Government can throw in the towel on all the people who cannot afford to wait another day. These are sensible and achievable measures the Government can introduce now to help young people, workers and families who are struggling today. I ask Senators from all parties and none to listen to the people we are supposed to be here to represent, people who are worried about how they will pay the next month's rent, people who have no idea what they will do if they get a letter from their landlord saying they are going to sell. They deserve to have their voices heard and their real fears listened to. I am asking Members to listen to us in Sinn Féin, to put party politics aside and to work with us to give renters a break, which they so desperately need.