Rory Hearne
Dublin North-West · Social Democrats · Ireland
“I thank you, a Leas Cheann-Comhairle, for your work and support during the year and thank all the staff here. I wish my colleagues in government the best of luck over the summer and respite from our robust engagement. We look forward to going at it again in the autumn.”
“The Dublin public will be very upset when they realise their fire fighters and emergency response service are at risk of being split and downgraded.”
“I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion. It is important to have a discussion about the context of education costs and back-to-school costs. Of course, the context is massive inequality in this country.”
“However, what it is actually doing is throwing families into even more stress on top of not being able to pay the basic bills. In my constituency to respond and support families struggling with back-to-school costs, the Finglas voluntary food and family support service, Feed Our Homeless, last year organised help for families with a pop-u…”
“A second tier of child benefit would lift 55,000 children out of poverty but the Government will not do it. It costs the same as what it has given in tax breaks to developers, investor funds and large fast-food giants. Childhoods pass quickly. No child should have their future limited by poverty.”
“The Government is ramming through planning legislation this week that will exempt sheds out the back without proper scrutiny. It is satisfied with handing our young people to vulture landlords. The Government is now offering a future of renting a shed out the back with no rights whatsoever.”
The complete record
Every one of 986 lines we hold for Rory Hearne, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 8 of 20.
“The housing crisis in the Gaeltacht is having a specific damaging effect on these communities and our language. Tá an ghéarchéim tithíochta na ceantair Ghaeltachta ag cur todhchaí na Gaeilge mar theanga bheo i mbaol. It is putting our language in danger. Young people are being forced to leave. Will the Minister set out how he is using his powers as the Minister responsible for the Gaeltacht under section 9 to help Údarás na Gaeltachta to deliver homes and ensure the future of our language and our Gaeltachtaí?”
“We have set out a proposal today - I look forward to the Minister's response to it - for a State construction company that would build affordable and social housing at scale. We could do that. I seriously ask the Minister to reconsider at this last moment. I ask him to pull back and not introduce the aspects of this Bill that will lead to the reset to market rents. The Government is going to unleash housing misery on hundreds of thousands of people and on future renters in this country. I do not get it. The Minister knows. How are people going to be able to afford even higher rents than they are paying now? Rents will be reset year after year and tenancy after tenancy. Properties will be churned back to higher market rents. This is a completely flawed Bill in its rent increases. There are alternatives.”
“With this legislation, the Minister is taking a deeply disappointing measure. I do not believe it will work. We have seen that we cannot rely on global finance to deliver affordable housing, or housing full stop. At what point do those global financiers say they have enough profit or sufficient returns? It is never enough. The funds are based on every year increasing the rate of return. That is the way these funds work. Surely the Minister knows that. There is no point at which they will turn around and reduce the rents. The Minister is locking our housing system into an unaffordable supply of housing. That is fundamentally flawed. There is an alternative. We have €166 billion lying in bank accounts in this country. We could be using that to build affordable homes.”
“Institutional and global wealth funds want to turn younger generations into a permanent class of renters who pay an income into their pension funds and wealth funds. What the Government is doing is facilitating that. It is ironic that Fianna Fáil, supposedly the party of home ownership, is standing over the reduction in home ownership and the reduced possibility of home ownership. How are young people supposed to be able to save for a deposit when they have to pay €3,000 or €3,500 per month in rent? The Government is taking the future possibility of home ownership away from them in order to get some units on a spreadsheet so that it can say it has reached its targets or is heading close to them. It is not thinking about what is being built. Affordable housing is not being built. The Government has been captured.”
“The Social Democrats have set out alternative policies, even though the Minister denies it. The Taoiseach says that there are no solutions, that nobody else is putting forward solutions and that we need to rely on the private market and institutional investors. We do not. That is one of the most frustrating things. The Government does not believe in the Irish people's capacity to solve our own crisis. Councils in the past, when this country had nothing, built public housing for people across this country. What the Government is now doing is sacrificing future generations and to making them pay rents that they will be locked into. It is going to create a permanent class of renters. It is like returning us to serfdom. It is happening not just in Ireland but in other countries.”
“They cannot afford the rents as they are. How are they going to afford higher rents? What has happened is that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been captured by institutional investors into thinking that this is the solution. I believe they are making a political calculation that is about units and not homes. The Government is lauding this increase in the number of units built last year. The Minister set this out himself. Where was the majority of unit increases? It was in apartments. Who is buying apartments? What household or young person is buying apartments? None of them are doing so. None of those units are for sale. They are all build-to-rent and with rents that no one can afford. What does the Government want? Is it more apartment blocks for which no one can afford the rent? That is not sustainable. They are not homes for people.”
“What are those rents going to be in two or three years' time? Will they be €4,000 per month? Who can afford these rents? It is not economically sustainable. Fianna Fáil is bringing us back to another property crash and another financial crash through unsustainable rents, just as there were unsustainable house prices in the past. Who is it for? Who is going to pay for it? That is a question the Taoiseach and the Minister do not address. Who are going to pay the rents? Young people at the moment are stuck in box rooms. Are they going to move out and pay €3,500 or €4,000 per month? They are not going to do it. They will still be stuck in the box room. People will be in overcrowded situations. People will be spending all their income on rent. What nurse, garda or teacher will be able to afford these rents?”
“Pat Farrell of Irish Institutional Property said that rent caps had stalled equity into Ireland, as the rate of return on investment was not lucrative enough for the build-to-rent sector. He said the rental cap policy has been "disastrous" and needs to be lifted. The Minister can dress it up any way he wants. The reality is that he is lifting these rent caps for the institutional investors so that they will increase supply, which will, at some mythical point in the future, lead to lower rents. It is not going to lead to lower rents, and the Minister knows that. He should at least have the honesty to admit that. They are, as the Minister set out in his statement, going to lead to all rents being brought up to market rent level. For what? Is it so that we can have more box units at €3,000 or €3,500 per month?”
“Pat Farrell, former Fianna Fáil chairperson and Senator, leads Irish Institutional Property and he has had multiple meetings with the Minister and his predecessor. Meeting after meeting with Department officials and the Minister are set out in the lobbying register. The relevant matter is that Pat Farrell of Irish Institutional Property, formerly a designated public official, DPO, and Member of the Seanad, met David Kelly, an assistant secretary in the Department of housing. What was the intended result? The intended result, which was set out on the lobbying register, was to "inform public policy review on rent regulation having regard to published [institutional investment policy] priorities". What does that mean? It means what he said in May last year, as was reported in the Business Post .”
“Sirr said: In my history, and from looking at my trends, charts and data, it has never happened yet because the quantity that we would need to bring down rents is so great that it is never going to happen. What institutional investor is going to build apartments that are going to bring down rents? It is a flawed assumption. It is a flawed theory. It is based on free market economic theory that does not work in the context of housing. We know it does not. What developer or investor is going to build the unit that will lead to lower prices and rents? It is not true. We know very clearly why this Bill has been introduced. This is a Bill that was pushed for by institutional investors, particularly by Irish Institutional Property. Mr.”
“It is wrong and it will be deeply damaging for many people in this country. The Minister wants renters to be paying market rents. Of course, the assumption and market theory justifying the Bill, one which the Housing Agency set out as well and with which I disagree, is that we allow rents to increase and then we will see an increase in institutional investment and more funds will come in. That will then lead to a supply that will, at some point in the future, lead to lower rents. Dr. Lorcan Sirr set out before the housing committee clearly that this assumption and theory has no foundation. As he set out, the theory is that the increased supply we are looking for is going to bring down rents, but no one can ever say when. The Minister will not say when rents will come down as a result of these rent increases. Dr.”
“He says that, on the one hand, the Government recognises that rents are very high. It is great that it does, but it will allow them to go even higher. What is it going to do? When a new tenancy lasts for over six years, the landlord will be allowed to reset the rent to market rent at the end of each six-year period. The Minister said that he does not want rents for long-term tenancies to fall behind market rents. He wants all renters to be paying the market rent. Currently, there are hundreds of thousands of renters who are paying below the market rent. In some cases, it is an affordable rent and, in other cases, it is a higher rent, but it is not the market rent. This Bill – the Minister said it very straight and plainly – is a Bill to bring all rents up to market rent, which is absolutely unaffordable.”
“I say to the people of Ireland and the public today that if the Social Democrats are in government in four or five years’ time after the next election, we will make sure to change it so that they will not face that market reset of rents. What is set out here is a recipe for the disaster and catastrophe in housing to become even worse. It is a recipe for rising homelessness. That is what this Bill is. It will cause increased homelessness in two ways. First, it does nothing to prevent the ongoing tsunami of homelessness and the thousands of evictions of existing renters. It does nothing to increase security of tenure for them. Second, when renters are evicted and they try to find somewhere else, there will be nowhere to go because everything will have been brought up to market rents. The Minister set it out very clearly.”
“Will the Minister at least have the decency and honesty to admit that? What renters are going to face is market rents. On top of that, when they take up the new tenancy, within six years they will face an increase in rent to market rents. Currently, for existing tenants, it is 2% per year. There is no point at which their rent can be reset to market rent. Under the new proposals in this legislation, however, for new tenancies that renters take up, landlords will be able to reset their rent to market rent every six years. We know what market rent is; it is absolutely unaffordable, extortionate rent. What will it be in six years’ time?”
“The Minister is being dishonest and misleading in claiming and stating publicly that this Bill gives renters greater security of tenure. To existing renters, all of those who are in their homes, they get no extra security of tenure. The certainty they get is the continued threat of eviction. They get no new protection. What will new renters - those who take up new tenancies - get? They get the certainty of permanently higher rents. First, when they take up a new place, the previous 2% inter-tenancy rent cap from the previous tenant is being removed and landlords will be able to increase the rent where there has not been a no-fault eviction, which is in the overwhelming majority of cases. They will be able to put the rent at market rent, meaning all new renters taking up new tenancies will face higher rents. They will face market rents.”
“I am not quite sure whether the Minister genuinely believes what he is setting out and has been saying in public. Let us explain honestly what the Minister is doing. With regard to the claim that renters will get certainty from this Bill, the truth, no matter what way he tries to spin it, is that the only certainty it gives existing renters, the 250,000 households renting right now, is that their current tenancies will continue into the future with the same threat of eviction as exists today. They get no new security of tenure. Yes, rents will remain capped at 2% per year but they will get no new existing security of tenure. There is this spinning that this is a Bill that will give renters greater security, but all existing tenants will get no greater security.”
“We could be employing them in a public construction company, alongside the market, while guaranteeing the core delivery of social and affordable homes by the State, like this country did in the past.”
“The housing crisis is an absolute social catastrophe. I was contacted yesterday by a woman who is a civil servant, who is in her 50s and who has been evicted from her home into homelessness. What is the Government going to do about homelessness? In particular, what is it going to do about the delivery of social and affordable housing? Today the Social Democrats launched a detailed proposal for a State construction company. It is costed. We need a game changer. We need the public sector to deliver affordable housing, just like we do in health and education. Will the Government take this up and implement and create a State construction company that could guarantee the delivery of housing? We have young people who are tradespeople emigrating from this country because they do not see a future.”
“They are being ripped out of the communities where they are building links and integrating. I ask the Minister to stop this demonisation. The Tánaiste said he was concerned about the level of population growth and that it could damage social cohesion. What is damaging social cohesion is the performative cruelty that is, in essence, trying to take pressure off the Government for its failures and put it onto vulnerable people who have come to this country, who want to contribute and are contributing, and who are part of our communities. We need to take a different direction.”
“They are working in construction. They are going out every day and building the homes we need. The Government, with these policies, could very well deport these people because it says it wants to take this hard line on immigration and asylum seekers. It is deeply disappointing. Asylum seekers up and down the country are working to provide care for some of the most vulnerable people in our society. They are building our homes. Yet, what we are seeing from the Government is their demonisation. I have spoken to a number of lone-parent mothers who were living in direct provision and who talked about the eviction letters that were going out. The Government is evicting people from direct provision to forms of emergency accommodation that are not even being classed as homelessness.”
“I echo my colleagues' concerns in relation to this Bill. I will make some broad points and question the nature of what is being brought forward, the Government's approach, its language around migration, the words that have been used, what it says and what has been done. I do feel, and I know colleagues share this, a deep concern about the direction this Government has taken. There is an element of what feels and looks like performative cruelty, that is, to be seen to be hard on immigration in order to, essentially, capitulate to people who are making some deeply disingenuous and wrong claims about immigration and asylum seekers. We might look at what migration and immigration has done for this country. I was talking to a number of asylum seekers this week who are in direct provision. Does the Minister know what they are doing?”
“Alongside building homes, we need community infrastructure. Homes do not build communities by themselves. What builds communities are parks, playgrounds, community centres and swimming pools, the social infrastructure that has to go in. In my constituency, in Ballymun and Finglas, people are crying out for community infrastructure. In Finglas, in particular, there are derelict buildings lying idle that could be bought by the council and turned into community buildings. The council cannot do so, however, because it does not have the funding. The Government is talking about all this record funding but when we drill down, councils do not have the funding to deliver the community infrastructure that is needed. We need a step change in how we invest in our public services and public infrastructure. The Minister has a budget surplus.”
“Infrastructure is the key to getting this country working for people. For too many people, Ireland is not working. When we look at the flooding yesterday and the traffic gridlock across the city and around the commuter belt, people are literally losing years of their lives because of the lack of investment in infrastructure. The Government, in its plans and pronouncements, can blame planning, judicial reviews, local authorities and even the population and immigrants, but the barrier is this Government not investing sufficiently in infrastructure following decade after decade of under-investment. Public transport is inadequate and rail networks are not good enough. In my constituency, the Luas Finglas line is ready to go but has been delayed. Why are shovel-ready projects being delayed? It is absolutely unacceptable.”
“It is one of the most profoundly hurtful and disconnected statements I have heard a Minister make about people with disabilities. It implies they are essentially making up the assertion that they are choosing between eating and heating. I am shocked. I ask the Minister to withdraw his statement and apologise for making it.”
“That he could make his statement shows how disconnected and out of touch the Government is. I am utterly shocked. The statement implies the Government has access to the funds to make the payments if it wanted to make them. What is happening is the Government’s fault. It is gaslighting the public and disabled people, denying them their reality. It is saying they are not actually suffering from a cost-of-living crisis or facing these choices. They are facing these choices. This is their lived reality. I am really shocked that the Minister stood up here today and made the statement about misleading and about dangerous messages to the effect that people must choose between food and heating. I am not sure the Minister actually thought through the significance of his statement.”
“This is supposed to be a republic based on equality and social justice. For disabled people and carers, this is a republic in name only. These are the most vulnerable people, yet the Government gives hundreds of millions of euro to wealthy investor funds while cutting the payments for disabled people. The Minister's statement says it all. It is absolutely disgraceful that he said we should be extremely careful about our alarmist language and should not be putting out anything that is misleading. I ask him to withdraw that. Who is doing the misleading? Is it the Irish Wheelchair Association? Today, the Irish Wheelchair Association made a very clear statement that people with disabilities are choosing between eating, heating and covering basic costs. The Minister is so disconnected.”
“I also thank my colleagues, Deputies Quaide and Hayes, for bringing this motion forward. Politics is all about choices. This Government made a choice in the budget to cut payments for people with a disability while it gave a VAT cut of €390 million to investor funds and developers. Right now, disabled people are struggling to pay the cost of living, including the costs of heating, food, and charging mobile equipment and wheelchairs, yet the Government refuses to implement our very straightforward proposal for a €400 emergency payment. It has the budget surplus. Why will it not ensure disabled people can turn on their heat this winter without worry or fear? The Taoiseach said the emergency cost-of-disability payment was not fiscally sustainable. What is not sustainable is disabled people freezing in their homes.”
“Things were said that were not actually accurate. I would like the record to be corrected if the truth is, as the Irish Examiner reported, that the Department knew and senior officials as early as 11 August were aware of the script for the housing video and it was widely circulated among senior officials with comments and suggestions. It is also reported that the Minister's own special adviser had been consulted on content for the information in the campaign that included the video. Can the Minister clarify that his special adviser and the Department actually were aware a video was being produced and were consulted for information or is the information that was reported in the Irish Examiner untrue?”
“Sorry, yes. What was reported in the Irish Examiner mentioned senior officials in the Department. I am pushing this because we need to be honest in the Oireachtas record. If what was said at the housing committee is not true, that needs to be corrected. What was happening at the time was the Minister and the Department were trying to get away from a controversy.”
“Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. The Minister has still not clarified when he first knew of the video. Could he clarify that, please? At the housing committee when I asked him directly about it, he set out four times that the Department of housing did not have any involvement in the video. He repeated that three times. Can the Minister clarify now and make a statement that the Department of housing was involved in the video and was aware of it? I will ask the Minister very clearly: when did he first become aware this video was being produced?”
“There was a significant public reaction to the video about moving in with family that was put up late last year. Will the Minister outline what role the Department of housing had in the production of that video and clarify when he first learned about the video?”
“The Minister is working with the institutional investors to bring more funding in here that will be used to build more build-to-rent units that people cannot afford, bring more vulture funds to buy up properties and apartment blocks. This housing approach has not worked. It is not going to work. It is absolutely disgraceful that the Government is introducing a measure that it knows will lead to higher rents. Will the Minister answer the following question: does he accept that these measures are going lead to higher rents? He is so disconnected from people. There is going to be significant public backlash to this because people will see what the reality is. It is a decision for investors funds and that is why the Government is allowing rents to rise.”
“I made it very clear and the Minister knows that we have alternatives. We set out a State fund that would actually increase funding for, not vulture funds but public affordable housing. The Government is completely out of touch and the Minister is too, to be honest. He has been captured. He has gone into the Ministry for housing and been captured by the investor funds. This is how clear it is that he has been captured. His Department is taking part in an event that is being billed as a global meeting point for global investors. The Department is setting up an "Irish Pavilion" for executives from international investment houses alongside Ministers.”
“We have record homelessness, with over 5,300 children homeless right now and living in emergency accommodation. We have a cost-of-living crisis, with families struggling to afford the basics, many of them renters. Hundreds of thousands of renters in the coming years, who are struggling to pay the basic costs of living, will not be able to afford the new market rent. Does the Minister agree that rents will increase as a result of these measures in the coming years? As a result of changes that he is about to make, rents are going to increase. That is the truth. Rents will be increased to market rent when tenancies change whereas there was a 2% rent cap when a tenancy changed previously. That is no longer going be the case. Can the Minister answer that straight question?”
“Will the Minister clarify how much funding this scheme is going to give out each year? Will he clarify how much of it he expects to be given to private developers and the private market, which he mentioned in his press release today? Does he have any concern about additional public funding being given to private developers? We could actually see private developers being given public money to develop wastewater and water infrastructure for housing projects when Irish Water, the public utility, should be getting that funding to do it. Does the Minister see why, as a result, we might be concerned that Government still holds to the idea that the market should ultimately deliver these things rather than our public services? Of course, it is part of the playbook of neoliberalism to run down public services so they can then be privatised.”
“I am concerned that we are going to be dealing with substandard water and wastewater infrastructure put in by private developers because of the Government's failure to ensure that Uisce Éireann is delivering and has the capacity and funding to deliver what is needed. I want to ask the Minister about the infrastructure fund that was announced today, which includes a reference to water. He said it is a €1 billion fund. Is the fund going to be used, for example, to deliver water and wastewater infrastructure? Is this additional funding on top of what was announced already or is it an announcement of the funding that was set out in the housing plan? Will the Minister clarify that? Is it funding that was already allocated within the housing budget and essentially an announcement of something that existed?”
“What this shows is that despite the claims that Uisce Éireann is sufficiently funded, it is clearly not. If the Minister has to rely on private developers to provide wastewater infrastructure, clearly Uisce Éireann does not have that capacity. What he needs to do is to accept that Uisce Éireann does not have the capacity to develop the water and wastewater infrastructure that is needed to develop the homes, and he is relying on private developers to fill the gap. Why is that problematic? It is problematic because we have seen the issues with private development when they cut corners. They are doing it for profit. They are not doing it as a charity.”
“I also want to address an issue I previously raised when I spoke on this matter. While I welcome the commitment to Uisce Éireann as a public utility, we cannot get away from the reality, which is that for many decades since the 1970s, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been following the policies of privatisation and outsourcing of various public services. Within the set-up of Uisce Éireann, there was an intention to privatise it. That is why there is still a need to hold a referendum to enshrine water as a human right and as a public good. We need that guarantee. One of the things that has given me significant concern is the Minister's proposal to allow private developers to provide wastewater infrastructure. I understand that he is saying it is in order to accelerate the delivery of housing infrastructure, but I have a concern about it.”
“We still face a problem with the Ringsend treatment plant where wastewater is being discharged into Dublin Bay at various points when there is a severe overload due to excessive rainwater. That happens, as we are seeing right now. Many people in my constituency use Dublin Bay. They swim in various parts of it, on the north side of it or on the south side. They use Dollymount Strand. For many people, Dublin Bay is one of the key spaces in which they can engage in leisure time and connect with nature. It is unacceptable that at many points throughout the year Dublin Bay is not usable because of poor water quality. While Uisce Éireann says that the Government has given it extra funding, it is not sufficient from the point of view of my constituents and the public to address the issues that are there.”
“Dublin's water infrastructure is in a serious crisis, but that is also the case with its wastewater infrastructure. This connects directly to the need to develop housing, which we know is significant across Dublin city. We need to expand and increase the number of homes that are going to be built, but that is all going to put significant pressure on the existing water and wastewater infrastructure. I do not believe that Uisce Éireann, as it currently operates, is set up to meet that capacity and deliver the water and wastewater infrastructure to the extent to, which it is required and to bring it up to the standards that are needed so as to avoid us facing situations of water shortages and also the huge loss of water that is happening.”
“The Minister knows water is a human right. While it is good that the Government is committed to support Uisce Éireann as a public utility, there are still significant issues in relation to water and wastewater across this country. There are also significant issues in Dublin where there are still major issues with leakages from pipes. A significant amount of clean, treated water is escaping from pipes and being lost. That is a loss of a natural resource and the investment that has gone into treating it. What is the Minister going to do to improve the significant leakage from old pipes in Dublin, which are losing a huge amount of our water? That is linked directly to what we are inevitably going to see again this summer in terms of water shortages.”
“Will he stop shamefully blaming immigration for homelessness and focus on the real cause - evictions by landlords and the lack of social housing for the elderly?”
“This week a Simon Communities of Ireland report reveals a national scandal of elderly people being made homeless in Ireland. It is heartbreaking and a stain on this country that the number of elderly people over 65 in homelessness has increased by 165% in Dublin and 500% in the west since 2017. Pensioners in their 70s and 80s are being evicted from their homes by landlords. Vulnerable elderly people who have worked all their lives for this country are being made homeless right now because Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will not stand up to the landlords and investor funds. Will the Taoiseach take responsibility for this homelessness catastrophe? Will he apologise to these elderly people that he has failed?”
“I ask the Minister to engage with Dublin City Council and ensure it has the funding so we can have this war on dereliction he is talking about. I ask he introduce the compulsory sales orders as well and let us actually genuinely go after them and give new buildings and new homes to communities that have been excluded and tackle that issue of dereliction and vacancy which is absolutely disgraceful and needs to be tackled properly.”
“We have a budget that will end up giving over €1 billion in VAT cuts to developers and fast food giants and yet our capital city's council does not have enough funding to meaningfully go after derelict properties and compulsory-purchase them. I mentioned my constituency of Finglas. I invite the Minister to Finglas Village to see the level of dereliction there. These are communities where people feel excluded and left behind. They go into their village centre and see derelict building after derelict building. What does it tell them about what the Government thinks about them and how it cares for them? They feel completely abandoned. I have proposed that Dublin City Council should be compulsory-purchasing buildings like the Drake Inn and converting them into affordable housing like that proposal being done, but it does not have the funding.”
“The Minister is probably aware that Dublin City Council has developed a plan, a proposal, a policy to set up an arms-length company, which it is doing, to purchase derelict properties and renovate them. This is an excellent idea. It was developed by our own councillor, Cian Farrell, with Dublin City Council. The problem is the scale of what is being proposed and the timeframe of it. They cannot deal with it on any level that could be considered a reasonable timescale because Dublin City Council is capped in terms of its borrowing. Also, the Government is not giving Dublin City Council sufficient funding.”
“Ireland is full of vacant and derelict buildings that Government after Government have failed to tackle and have allowed property owners to sit on while thousands of people are homeless. Again, I ask the Minister to withdraw the comments from this Government that are blaming immigrants for the housing crisis because they are literally stoking fires and attacks on people which we see happening. The housing crisis being blamed is absolutely disgraceful. Regarding policies that could be pursued, I have outlined them in terms of actually introducing a derelict sites tax. I also want to talk about Dublin City Council and its attempts to deal with dereliction. We look across Dublin and see derelict site after derelict site. Our capital city is full of them.”
“Nowhere is there an acceptance of responsibility for the cause of the housing crisis being decades of failure in policy by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. If we look at it in terms of dereliction and vacancy, we have seen failure of Government after Government to tackle this issue. The Minister says he is waging war on it, but where is the evidence? Will we see a derelict property tax? Why will it not come into force this year? What we are seeing is words. We are not seeing action on dereliction and vacancy. It is deeply frustrating because when we look at these claims and what the Government is doing, it is fomenting and adding to the Ireland-is-full nonsense. Ireland is not full.”
“He would fund councils to be able to renovate their properties to ensure they are not leaving thousands of council properties vacant. The most reprehensible and nasty politics has emerged from the Government in recent months from the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach. This is the shift to blame immigrants and migrants for the housing crisis. It is absolutely disgusting. I read the Tánaiste's Substack where he outlined again the false claim that people in emergency accommodation do not have a legitimate right to housing. I ask the Minister to respond to this. Do people in emergency accommodation have a legitimate right to housing? We know that of course they do. What is being done by the Government is a deflection of responsibility. It is a dangerous move and it is stoking the social divisions the Tánaiste claims he is concerned about.”
“At present there is huge underidentification and under-registration of these derelict sites by local authorities. What will change with this tax? Around 2,000 sites are currently identified but GeoDirectory states there are 19,000 derelict properties. If the Minister wanted to wage war on dereliction he would fund local authorities properly to compulsorily purchase derelict and vacant buildings and do them up to be used as affordable housing. He would introduce compulsory sales orders to force owners to sell buildings that are rotting and falling apart. He would introduce a vacant property tax that would actually tax the vacant homes throughout the country. He would introduce the derelict tax this year and make it compulsory.”