Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "That Seanad Éireann:" and substitute the following:

“notes that: - Housing for All is providing record levels of funding to support the delivery of social and affordable homes by local authorities, Approved Housing Bodies and the Land Development Agency;

- over €5 billion in capital investment is available in 2024 through exchequer funding, Land Development Agency investment and Housing for All lending to support the delivery of Housing Programmes;

- Housing for All includes a target to deliver 90,000 new build social homes and 54,000 homes for affordable purchase or rental by 2030;

- the Government is fully committed to tackling high rents and ensuring an increase in the supply of affordable high-quality rental accommodation through continued significant capital investment, including cost rental and other means, and in a manner that respects the security of tenure for renters by ensuring equity and fairness for landlords and tenants;

- according to the RTB / ESRI Rent Index, the standardised average rent for new tenancies for Q3 2023 is €1,598 nationally (an increase of €25 on the previous quarter), €2,113 for Dublin, and €1,296 per month outside Dublin (non-Dublin);

- the standardised average rent for existing tenancies for Q3 2023 is €1,357 nationally (€240 per month lower than for new tenancies), €1,788 in Dublin, and €1,047 per month outside Dublin (non-Dublin);

- the extension of rent pressure zones, where rent increases are capped at 2 percent per annum, the increase in the rent tax credit to €750 in Budget 2024, and the introduction of other legislative requirements to support renters;

- this Government is committed to supporting the continued participation of landlords and growing their investment in the rental market;

- Budget 2023 provided for a doubling of the cap on deductibility for a landlords pre-letting expenditure for previously vacant properties to €10,000 per property;

- Budget 2024 will see landlords benefit from a tax break worth between €600 and €1,000, rising if they stay in the market up to 2027;

- Housing for All sets an annual target of 25 percent for the inspection of all private residential tenancies from 2021 and a total of €9 million in Exchequer funding is being made available to local authorities this year to help them meet their private rental inspection targets;

- the Government has approved the General Scheme of the Residential Tenancies (Right to Purchase) Bill for priority drafting and publication during this Oireachtas session, to legislate for a ‘first refusal’ where their landlord intends to sell the dwelling; further notes that: - in 2021, the Government introduced a series of measures designed to prohibit the bulk buying of houses and duplexes, including section 28 guidelines which aim to provide an ‘owner-occupier’ guarantee by ensuring that new ‘own-door’ houses and duplex units in housing developments can no longer be bulk-purchased by institutional investors;

- a 10 percent stamp duty levy was introduced for the cumulative purchase of 10 or more residential houses in a 12-month period, aimed at ensuring a level playing field for traditional family home buyers, including but not limited to first-time buyers, while facilitating vital investment in high density apartments;

- since the introduction of these measures, the increased level of stamp duty has applied to less than 2 percent of total new dwelling completions;

- at the end of Q4 2023, planning permissions which had the ‘owner-occupier’ guarantee attached amounted to 39,900 homes with an owner-occupier guarantee since the guidelines were introduced in 2021;

- the relatively modest number of homes purchased by institutional investors; acknowledges that increased supply is key to meeting demand and moderating the pent-up pressures in the private rental sector and welcomes that: - Housing for All is successfully supporting a significantly increased supply of new homes, with a record 32,695 new homes completed in 2023, a 10 percent increase on 2022 and the highest number of new homes delivered in 15 years, exceeding the 2023 target of 29,000 by almost 13 percent;

- the latest annual data on the number of Commencements Notices (residential construction starts) published on 18 January, 2024 show that almost 33,000 (32,801) new homes were commenced in 2023, the highest number of annual commencements on record, an increase of over 21.5 percent compared to 2022 (26,957), and is the highest number of annual residential commencements since records began in 2014;

- the increase in the thresholds for access to cost rental homes was increased from €53k net to €66k net in Dublin and €59k outside Dublin, in July 2023;

- interventions such as the tenant in situ scheme are making a real impact in providing secure, long-term homes and preventing homelessness, and to date in 2023 over 1,300 social housing acquisitions have been completed, with a further 1,260 at various stages of the assessment and conveyance process;

- the cost rental tenant in situ scheme was introduced on 1st April, 2023, for tenants in private rental homes who are not eligible for social housing supports but who are at risk of homelessness, and the Housing Agency is engaging with more than 130 landlords with a view to the purchase of those homes; recognises that considerable progress has been made since the publication of Housing for All in September 2021, including: - increased social and affordable housing supply in the first nine months of 2023, with 4,815 new social homes being delivered by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies, including 2,642 new-build homes, 1,033 acquisitions and 1,140 homes delivered through leasing programmes; and agrees that continued implementation of Housing for All represents the most appropriate response to deal with the housing challenges which Ireland is now facing.”

I will speak to the amendment and the motion. This is an important motion. It is incredibly important for the hundreds of thousands of people who live in rented accommodation. That in itself highlights the deep dishonesty, cynicism and recklessness of Sinn Féin's approach to this issue.It is similar to their approach to housing policy in general. It is really upsetting for anyone who does live in rented accommodation to hear the destructive voices, the double-speak and the double-talk, and the contradictory, dishonest and cynical approach that Sinn Féin takes to housing. They say that housing is a human right. They say they believe that yet they treat it in this way. It is appalling. It is such a betrayal of the people that you pretend to represent.

This motion is dishonest. It distorts the facts. It pretends to care when all the time if what it proposes were to be enacted and taken seriously then it would be like taking a wrecking ball to people's homes.

The motion talks about Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael's housing policies driving up the cost of rents. Sinn Féin knows this and is not stupid. They have the information that the cost of housing is increasing directly proportionate to construction inflation. They know that construction inflation is being driven by supply-side shortages. They know this yet they continue to pretend. They pretend that this Government, somehow, is incentivising private investors to bulk purchase homes when they know that this Government has changed the laws so that local authorities can reserve homes for owner-occupiers. They know that this Government has introduced a tenfold stamp duty to prevent the bulk purchasing of homes. They know that since this Government changed those laws less than 1% of all of the homes purchased were bulk purchased. They know all of this yet they will pretend otherwise.

Renters represent hundreds of thousands of people. Some of them are renting social housing and some of them are renting privately. For all of those renters, we have taken action to protect them and their homes. We have increased the social housing income limit, the rent allowance and the housing assistance payment. We have introduced homeless housing assistance payment. We have rent pressure zones in place which cap rents. They talk about getting landlords to invest and upgrade properties yet at the same time they want to prevent landlords being able to cover the cost of those improvements.

We have invested. We have seen the single biggest capital investment in increasing the supply of social and affordable homes. Sinn Féin voted against the Affordable Housing Act. They voted against legislation that allows local authorities to build affordable homes, not just to purchase but to rent. They voted against increasing Part V that requires every private development to have 10% reserved for social homes and 10% reserved for affordable homes. They will scrap the schemes that help tens of thousands of renters to buy their own homes. More than 40,000 renters have claimed their tax credit to use as a deposit to buy their own home. They will scrap the first home scheme that is helping thousands of renters buy their own home.

The tenant in situscheme was introduced. Sinn Féin talks about tenant security. Thanks to this Government, if a tenant gets a notice to quit then the Government will step in. The State steps in and purchases the home thus prevents homelessness. Sinn Féin knows that more individuals and families are exiting homelessness, are being prevented from entering homelessness every day and the number of homes being built in this country is unprecedented in decades. They know all of this.

Sinn Féin talks about the 21,000 Australian holiday visas. They know that in the year they chose the Australian Government increased the number of visas by 30%. They also know that in the same year 29,000 Irish people returned to live in this country. Stop talking down our country. Stop talking down our young people. Stop treating them like idiots. They are not idiots. They are intelligent and capable people.