Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I too thank the Sinn Féin Senators for bringing forward this motion, and I am very happy to support it. There is no doubt about it: we all know what a disaster the housing market is and the catastrophic impact it is having on so many people's lives. I think every single person in this Chamber would personally know many young families who are at the end of their tether. I certainly know many families who are at the end of their tether and who really have nowhere to go. I am disappointed with the Government's countermotion, which lists the Government's modest housing achievements. This contrasts starkly with the ESRI's submission to the Oireachtas Committee on Budgetary Oversight this evening, as reported by The Irish Times. The submission states that housing investment in Ireland is among the lowest across Europe, outranking only Greece, Poland and Bosnia, and that the Government's housing targets are lower than those recommended by the IDA, the ESRI and the Housing Commission. Housing for All is a low bar which the Government is still struggling to clear.

The HAP scheme is one of the biggest disasters of the housing crisis. HAP is not a benefit for low-income renters. It is given in lieu of social housing support, which could provide real stability and comfort. People in receipt of HAP are being failed by the State, which cannot provide adequate public services or proper regulation of the housing market. HAP is also contributing to the inflation of rents as lower income HAP recipients, who should be supported through the provision of social housing, are made to compete with middle-income tenants in the private sector. We need to listen to the experts when they say that measures like HAP and the help-to-buy scheme are inflationary giveaways to landlords and developers.

I am glad the motion refers to the need for more inspections of private rental properties. People are so desperate to find a place to live and the existing regime of inspection is so lax that many landlords are charging extortionate rents for substandard housing. Places listed for rent often have poor insulation or broken appliances or are critically overcrowded. Students, migrant workers and people on low incomes are particularly vulnerable to this form of exploitation. There are people living in degrading, overcrowded conditions and paying through the nose to do so, and it must stop. The landlords letting these substandard units should be held accountable for their greed and opportunism.

Eurostat reported that 23% of renters in the private rental market experience material deprivation. That is the highest rate for any high-income EU country. Renting in Ireland is extremely stressful, uncertain and financially ruinous. The housing crisis is creating dysfunctions which impact everyone. In many parts of the country, particularly Dublin, essential workers are having a hard time affording the cost of living. Teachers, nurses, early childhood education providers and bus drivers, without whom Dublin city cannot function, are being pushed to the margins. As a member of the Oireachtas health committee, I hear about the catastrophic impact that the recruitment and retention crisis in the health system has on the provision of essential healthcare. The housing crisis is fundamentally impeding our ability to provide adequate public services. Irish universities are producing world-class graduates who want to build their careers caring for and educating others, but we are exporting them far and wide because they cannot see a future for themselves here. All the while, waiting lists get longer, class sizes bigger and accident and emergency departments more overcrowded and chaotic.

Housing is an essential public good but it is being used to enrich investors and hedge funds at the expense of ordinary people. The housing crisis is undermining social solidarity and the provision of public services. Radical change is needed to treat housing as a human right and not an investment class. Quality social housing can be an engine for creativity and social mobility and can help people build stable lives, start families and build communities. We all saw the ambitious local authority housing construction programmes of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, which transformed Ireland. It was Fianna Fáil that did that, and it did a phenomenal job. There is so much more wealth in Ireland now, and I do not understand why that ambition on the part of the Government is not being shown again. In January 2024, around 13,500 people were recorded as homeless. Some 4,000 of those people are children and they really deserve better than this.

This motion makes reasonable and humane demands. A freeze on rents and the reinstatement of the eviction ban would help protect people from a crushing cost-of-living crisis and a sense of precariousness that makes life so much more mentally and emotionally taxing. The motion has my total support.