Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I listened very carefully to the Minister and the Minister of State. The question many renters, if they are watching this debate, will be asking is how much longer does the Government want us to wait. The Minister of State will remember when the Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Coveney, introduced the rent pressure zones. He made two clear commitments, first, that rents in high rent areas would be constrained to a 4% increase a year over three years and, second, that by the end of that three years, supply would be coming on stream and would start to reduce the pressure. It is in black and white on the Department's website. In that period, rents have increased by 24%, twice what the Government committed to, and supply has not come on stream. The reason is that if we leave the private sector to its own devices, it is not going to invest to an adequate level to provide the kind of affordable housing to rent or buy that people need.

Our proposal has never been to introduce a rent freeze and just leave it there. If we do that, it will not work, and the Minister is right about that. However, given where rents are at, given the astronomically high level of housing costs that families are bearing, if we introduce a temporary rent freeze, give a refundable tax credit to ease the pressure and, alongside that, have a much greater level of Government investment in affordable rental and affordable purchase accommodation, that is what will solve this crisis.

The Minister, Deputy Murphy, clearly and deliberately misrepresented the Sinn Féin position because he sat here and listened to me say all of that, and he then said we were proposing something else. With respect to Deputy Darragh O'Brien, again, he gave a clear misrepresentation of our position. Deputy O'Brien has sat here, week after week, and listened to me argue for Government-led investment in social and affordable rental and affordable purchase accommodation, which is our party's position and has been for a long time.

What renters will be left with after this debate is a Government which says its policy is going to work at some point in the future, and renters should just bear with it, despite the fact the three years in which it told renters this would work have passed. I listened to Fianna Fáil say, yes, it supports this but it needs to take its time and it needs to be careful and tease through all of the various issues, when we have had three years to do precisely that. Between the jigs and the reels of the politicking in here, renters will face another year of rent increases and another year of unsustainable housing costs. Something has to give. It is not the case that the rent pressure zone data from the RTB or Daft shows that rents are declining. There may be some evidence that rent increases are levelling off but they are still rising, and they are rising way above what people can afford.

The Minister and the Minister of State are right that I deliberately did not include HAP in this Bill. My view is that HAP should be treated like RAS. There should be no top-ups and the rents should be set by lease between the local authority and the landlord. That is an amendment I would like to make to the housing (miscellaneous provisions) Bill because it would take the pressure off low-income families, which is a separate proposition. However, I would be happy to take amendments from the Opposition during the course of this Bill through committee to address that.

On the question of constitutionality, I do not accept that is the case. We were told, for example, that rent pressure zones would be unconstitutional and there was no challenge and they have proceeded. Every time the constitutionality of constraining property rights has been brought before the courts, such as with Part V of the Planning and Development Act, the courts have said very clearly that where the principles of social justice and the common good are being met by specific Government policies, then property rights can be constrained. My non-legal view is that this would apply in the context of an emergency measure for three years, but I would be quite happy to test it in the courts.

With respect to the Minister's comments about Sinn Féin in Dublin Mid-West opposing residential development, it is not true. He made specific reference to Kilcarberry when, in fact, Deputy Ward and I have spent years campaigning for residential development on that site. We secured enormous support from local residents, often with quite significant resistance. However, what we did oppose is the sale of the land to a private developer because it would deliver no affordable homes, and I stand over that decision. Similarly, we opposed the transfer, not the sale, of key strategic public land in O'Devaney Gardens to a developer because it will deliver no affordable homes. In fact, it was Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors in Dublin Mid-West and South Dublin County Council who opposed a motion by the then Councillor Ward for 3,000 social and affordable houses to be guaranteed in the Clonburris strategic development zone. Thankfully, we had a majority on the council, led by our group, and the opposition of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to affordable homes there was defeated.

With respect to other Opposition Members, I am more than happy to work with the Social Democrats and Labour Party amendments and if they are in the spirit of the Bill, we will support that. With respect to Solidarity-People Before Profit and RISE, they are right that this is a very modest proposal and, in fact, much more needs to be done, but we have to start taking action.

I stand over this proposition, which I believe is a good proposition. It is time to give renters a break, put money back in their pockets and stop rents from increasing. Crucially, at some point the Minister is going to have to deliver more than 50 affordable rental homes, which is all he is going to deliver next year. We need substantial investment in affordable cost rental and affordable purchase to do what the private sector cannot and will not do, which is build homes at affordable prices for workers and families.

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