Deputy Micheál Martin - speech from 12 Nov 2019

Thank you. Ceann Comhairle. And Taoiseach, the latest DAF.ie rental report, I am sure you will agree, makes for very serious and depressing reading, revealing very high rents across the country. The average rent now stands at 1,400 euros per month, dramatically higher, and it's been going up continuously for nine years. Alarmingly, economist Ronan Lyons is warning that the market could face another 10 years of high rents and rent misery, if the government, he says, continues to settle for a system that depends on the likes of cuckoo funds to prop up the rental market. And meanwhile, Threshold are warning that the continuing high rents are forcing more and more people into homelessness, and many, many more under the threat of homelessness. And alarmingly, across the country now, there are only about 3,500 homes available for rent. If you look at the increases in Dublin, Dublin 8, for example, rents have gone up 125% over nine years. And I think we'll all have to agree that rents have been at an unaffordable level now for many, many years. Look, in Cork now, it's 1,372 is the average rent. Galway, 1,300, and Limerick, 1,219. And all of this, surely, Taoiseach, should act as a catalyst for a fundamental change in housing policy. Because, in particular, the younger people of this country are being failed, and failed very badly, by current policies. A young person today is finding it impossible to pay these rents, and young couples in particular are finding it impossible to save deposits, whilst paying exorbitant rents, in tandem with credit constraints. Clearly, the rent controls in existence are not working, contrary to what the Minister said in the Dáil last month. And the various solutions that the Government have come up with have clearly not been effective, and have not had the impact. And if you look at people on low incomes, relatively modest incomes, because you must remember the local authority income eligibility thresholds are very low, in terms of being able to qualify for a local authority house. So you have thousands and thousands of people who are trapped in this high-rent misery. High-rent misery, Taoiseach. And what I want to put to you, Taoiseach, is this. Surely it is now time for the Government to consider a rent freeze, and to impose a rent freeze, given the exorbitant levels of rent that people are facing. And does Taoiseach accept that it's going to be another ten years of misery, in accordance with the comments of Ronan Lyons this morning, The Economist? And does he accept that? And does Taoiseach accept that current policies are simply not working, and that the young people in particular, a whole generation of people, are being failed and can never look forward to the prospect of owning their own homes, which is their wish and their desire? Thanks. Thanks very much, Deputy. Thanks. Thanks very much, Deputy. I think, first of all, I want to acknowledge that rents in Ireland are very high. Rents and rents relative to incomes are very high in Ireland, and that is a real problem. And they have become unaffordable for a lot of people in the country, particularly in our cities. The solution to it, in our view, is twofold. Rent controls and also an increase in supply of housing. Rent controls, which are now in place, mean that for any existing tenancy, rents cannot increase in any given year by more than 4%. And, as you'll know, the statistics that were produced by DAF today don't capture that. They only capture new tenancies. So those rent controls, that maximum rent increase of 4% a year, is working for hundreds of thousands of people who are staying in the same place that they've been renting medium-term or long-term. And had not been for those rent controls, I think those hundreds of thousands of people would have faced very high rent increases by now. But that's not captured in these statistics, as Professor Lyons has said himself, because these are new tenancies. They don't apply to existing tenancies. The second aspect of the solution has to be more supply. More supply of social housing, so that people can move out of private rented accommodation, move out of HAP and rent supplement into social housing. We will provide an extra 10,000 social houses this year, more than any year this century. And we'll ramp that up to 11,000 the year after that, 12,000 the year after that, the biggest social housing programme in many decades. And also an increased supply of private housing, more places for people to buy, so they don't have to rent any more. And that frees up properties for other people to rent, and, of course, more places to rent. And I'm pleased that there were another set of statistics out yesterday, which shows a very significant increase in supply of housing. That if you take the year to September, there's been a 28% increase in commencement notices. There had been some concerns that things were slowing down. We know from the numbers out yesterday that that's not the case. 28% increase year-on-year in commencement notices. And behind that, we see a 31% increase in planning permissions. So, commencement notices for 26,000 new homes in the last year, and 31,000 granted planning permission in the last year, right behind that. So, we see a very strong pipeline of new housing coming along. Social housing for people on the housing list, but also private housing for people to buy and people to rent. And, fundamentally, that is the solution. And we can now see that that's working. I heard you quoting Assistant Professor Lyons earlier, but I'm not sure if you're actually quoting from the actual report, because I have it here. And here is what he says in the report published today. It's there in big writing, so that you can see that it's the thing that he believes is the most important. And it says, it looks as though Ireland's longest ever run of increasing rental prices may soon come to an end. Nationally, inflation in the private rental market, as measured by the DAF.ie report, has fallen from over 12% in mid-2018 to 5.2% in the third quarter of 2019. Dublin is driving this. Over the same period, inflation in the capital has fallen from 13.4%, his words, to just 3.9%. And in four of the city's 25 markets, Dublin 1, 2, 4 and 20, the inflation rate is now less than 2%. This is the first time since early 2013 that this has been the case. But, Taoiseach, that is nothing to boast about. But you've had 14 quarters of rent increases. Back in 1987, Taoiseach, a young couple would have had to pay 19% of their net annual earnings to afford a home. If you go to 2014, Taoiseach, that's five years ago. You're looking at 30%. In terms of a deposit, a young couple back in 1987, 30% of their net annual earnings would have been involved. That went to 50% by 2014. God knows what it is now. You see, Taoiseach, I don't know, if you just go and talk to people. This is the big issue out there. Young people are very, very angry. Their parents are very, very angry. You're knocking on doors and people say to you, there's five or seven in this house because our young kids can't afford to rent. Many local authority housing now, you have many people living in the local authority houses because these high rents have, in the words of Threshold, forced people into homelessness. Now, instead of going on the streets or into emergency accommodation, many people are going back to their own families. That's the reality of what's happening. Now, we have the lowest level of home ownership ever in this country now, in many a year. And the reason is, Taoiseach, I think one of the policy mistakes, big policy mistake, you went for the rental model. Fine Gael went for a rental model, thought the private market would resolve it, and it hasn't. And I think these figures are extremely worrying, Taoiseach, and the prediction of another ten years of rent misery for younger people and young couples. And it does demand a dramatic change in scale of response, in terms of both house building and in terms of a rent freeze. I think there's something a little bit odd about you going back to 1987. I'm not sure it was 1987 or 1997, but whichever year you chose was an interesting year to go back to, because you didn't mention the 20 years of Fianna Fáil government that occurred after that period. And clearly, during that period of government, you were responsible for many of the policies that gave rise to the housing crisis and housing shortage that we face today. And, you know, I know the Deputy likes to pretend that he was only elected to the Dáil back in 2011 or 2017, but he was in power for almost all of that period, or for a large part of it. But if you want to talk about young people, let's talk about young people. I'm detached from them. Let's talk about those young people. Let's talk about those young people. So since this government of Fine Gael and Independent Alliance has come into office, we've introduced the Help to Buy scheme. That Help to Buy scheme has ensured that 15,000 young people and young couples have been able to raise a deposit to buy their first home. And that's happened because of decisions taken by this government to support and help first-time buyers. And the supply is now coming on stream. The number is out only yesterday. 28,000 commencement notices. New homes commenced in the past year, up significantly in last year. 35,000 planning permissions granted in the last year. A good pipeline being granted behind that. And you mentioned the DAFT report again. You said 3,500 properties available for rent on that particular website. Their own report says that's 10% more than this time last year. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Joe.