Deputy Mary Lou McDonald- speech from 16 Jun 2021

Teachta, I want to raise with you again this afternoon the issue of renters, a group of people, some 300,000 renters across the state that your government is failing and failing badly. Ten months ago, your Minister for Housing stripped renters of vital COVID-19 protections. Indeed, Dara O'Brien's first act as Minister was to pass the Residential Tenancies and Valuation Act of 2020 and this of course ended the blanket ban on rent increases, notices to quit and evictions which had been introduced by his predecessor. This ban, which was necessary on public health grounds, led to the most dramatic drop in people losing their homes in a decade, Taoiseach. But in its place, Dara O'Brien introduced a very highly restrictive and unnecessarily cumbersome protection for a very small number of renters only. So, if a renter had lost income due to COVID-19, was on a COVID-19 related payment, was in arrears, was at risk of losing their tenancy and had submitted a written declaration to the Residential Tenancy Board, well then they were protected from rent increase or eviction. But the renter had to meet all five of those criteria, those onerous tests, or else they lost all of the protections. And when tenants' advocacy organizations, the likes of Threshold for example, and those of us in opposition warned that Dara O'Brien's bill was too restrictive, we were accused of scaremongering or playing politics as you might have it. But figures obtained by my colleague, Chukta Owen O'Brien from the Residential Tenancy Board this week, prove that far from scaremongering or playing politics, Threshold, the advocates and those of us on the opposition were right. We now know that since last August, almost 4,000 tenants have received 28-day rent arrears warning letters from their landlords, and that 1,100 notices to quit have been issued. And yet, only 475 tenants have submitted this written declaration to the Residential Tenancies Board to protect them from eviction. Taoiseach, there are 300,000 registered tenancies in this state. And the fact is that the so-called protections introduced by Dara O'Brien apply to just 475 of them. 475 tenancies out of 300,000. This comes at a time, as you very well know, when rents are sky high and unaffordable for so many workers and families. And yet, many have faced rent increases, with more increases on the way as landlords roll two years hikes into one. So, it is very clear now, and the evidence demonstrates Taoiseach, that Dara O'Brien's highly restrictive protections are simply not fit for purpose. So, I want to know Taoiseach, do you now accept in light of data and facts and experience that your policy has failed renters? And are you willing, as a matter of urgency, to reintroduce the blanket ban on rent increases and evictions for all renters until at least the end of this year? Thank you very much, Deputy. Taoiseach, please. First of all, I do not accept the arguments or indeed the assertions put forward by the Deputy. And Minister Dara O'Brien is working very proactively to protect renters. And indeed, the legislation that he introduced did just that. And the 475 people who applied, applied because they were vulnerable as a result of COVID-19. And they then received the protections that were provided under the Planning Development Presidential Tenancy Act. And those protections are available up to the 12th of July. I anticipate the Minister, through legislation, will extend those protections for tenants and renters up until January of 2022. And, of course, in terms of the RPZ framework, that is due to expire at the end of 2021. The Minister will also have proposals in relation to that. Rent arrears diagnosis does not always result in eviction notices, as the Deputy is well aware. And I would just also point out to the Deputy that something we have to take on board as well, that the number of landlords registered with the RTB reduced actually by 3,857 in 2020. So that is a significant contraction in the market. That is 3,857 more. So there is a balance to be struck here. Now, the Minister wants to deal with both the rent increase issue, but also ensuring protection for renters also. The very strong advice to the Minister has been that a blanket freeze or ban on rent increases of any duration would be the subject of a legal challenge, will almost certainly deter continued investment in the rental accommodation market. Now, I read Deputy O'Brien's comments today. He wants it extended for another six months. So even he, in his commentary, accepts that you can't have a rent freeze forever. The difference now seems to be one of six months between what you're saying and what the government position is. The government's advice and the Minister's advice has been very strongly that a blanket ban on rent increases would be subject to a legal challenge. And it doesn't in itself grow the rental accommodation market either. We do need more accommodation. We need more housing supply. We need more affordable housing as well. But also, I think we are making progress on the homelessness front. And I think it's been quite significant. You know, 1,364 adults and their dependents exited from emergency accommodation or were prevented from entering into emergency accommodation in the first quarter of 2021. The Housing First programme now is providing homes with people with very high support needs with 539 active Housing First tenancies now nationwide. We know that a notice of termination served does not always result in an eviction. And a landlord very often serves a notice of termination but doesn't follow through on it or it can be averted or it can be dealt with. And we will do everything we possibly can to protect tenants. And there's a range of supports that are available there to protect tenants, including the legal supports that the Minister has brought in, the legislation that is brought in, is going to extend for tenants to the beginning of next year. And I think the parallel with that will be a continuing focus in reducing the number in family homelessness, which has come down by 31% now on the total recorded in April of 2020. And in the first quarter alone, you know, since the start of 2021, a total of 224 families in Dublin have exited emergency accommodation. But ultimately we don't want people falling into any situation where eviction becomes the norm. We have to, on a range of policies, do everything we possibly can to prevent evictions and to support those who are renting and that's what we intend to do. The Taoiseach says that he doesn't claim my assertions, but of course I'm not making personal assertions. You see Taoiseach, the figures don't lie. Let me repeat them for you. Almost 4,000 rent arrears warning letters, over 1,000 notices to quit and just 475 renters protected from a total population of 300,000 registered tenancies. So your scheme has failed. That's the fact, that your scheme has failed. Your job is to protect all renters who are subjected to extortionate rents and huge insecurity at the time of a massive housing emergency. An emergency that we suffer and endure not least because of your time in office Taoiseach previously. So I want to put it to you again. Are you prepared to do what is necessary? And what is necessary, and make no mistake, is reintroducing the blanket ban on rent increases, which you can do, a ban on notices to quit and evictions at least until the end of this year. And give renters some comfort, some protection and some assurance that their government acts for them and isn't overly, totally consumed by developers and landlords. Taoiseach, please. I just said to you, Deputy, you have no substance to your policies actually, and you have no solutions to the housing problem. You want a blanket ban on the rent fees for another six months only, with no focus at all on what that will do in terms of growing the number of houses that are available to rent. I gave you a figure earlier in terms of over 3,700 and less houses now. 3,857, less houses available for rent in 2020. That is a very significant contraction in the market. You seem to want to push it down even more. You want to make less houses available, it seems to me. You don't really have a coherent medium-term housing policy. You seem always wanting to exploit the housing issue. We need supply. We need to build more houses. And the cost rental initiative the Minister has introduced, which would provide up to 500 houses this year under the cost rental, 25% below market value. That is the type of initiative we need. And we need to dramatically increase those numbers. And when the land development agency legislation is passed, we will have capacity to dramatically increase cost rental in this country, along with more affordable housing and service sites. I am more into solutions to the housing problem. I am not trying to make it worse. I am trying to keep everyone on time.