Denis Naughten spoke about housing policy, urging the reuse of derelict buildings and stronger legal protections for older people who downsize. He argued that derelict stock could be returned to the market relatively quickly and warned that older people face insecure tenure and sharp rent increases in retirement accommodation.
Derelict buildings and serviced land
He endorsed Deputy Canny's remarks and said rising property prices in many provincial towns are driven by a lack of availability and a lack of serviced land. He described derelict buildings as low-hanging fruit that could be refurbished quickly and highlighted that the State currently pays an average €30,714 to service a site in Dublin while providing no equivalent assistance to refurbish derelict town properties.
Shortage of suitable housing for older people
He highlighted older people living in accommodation that is too large and costly to heat and said there is a shortage of one- and two-bedroom bungalows in the private market. He noted that accommodation of that standard is largely limited to local authority stock, which many older homeowners will not be eligible for, and called for proactive public-private partnerships to develop cluster-style bungalows near town centres so older people can downsize.
Security of tenure and rent shock
He called for special legislation to secure tenure for older people in leased retirement accommodation. He gave the example of Mary, who moved into an unfurnished apartment in a retirement development in 2011 and saw her rent jump from €430 to €800 (an 86% increase) because the rent was not index-linked. He said such unilateral increases are unacceptable for people on fixed incomes and stressed that the issue has been raised at Cabinet and with the Housing Minister with no action to date.
Policy demands and urgency
He urged urgent measures: targeted support to refurbish derelict buildings, legislative protection of tenure for downsizers, and partnership with the private sector to build suitable smaller homes for older people. He insisted these steps are needed to increase housing supply and provide older people with the security required to downsize.
We publish thousands of recordings to make Irish politics transparent and resistant to manipulation. Spotted an error? Report it — together we are building a reliable archive of Irish politics.
Thank you, Laskan Comhairle. Can I endorse everything that Deputy Canny has just said and if you see right across the country at the moment in many of our provincial towns the rapidly increasing price in property is as a direct result of the lack of availability of property and the lack of serviced land. But I want to take a step back for a minute, Minister, and focus on the low-hanging fruit because yes, there's absolutely no doubt about it. We have a huge challenge in servicing land, opening up land, developing land and building new houses across this country. But we also have a substantial amount of derelict buildings across this country as well and that is housing stock that could be put back into the market relatively quickly and we cannot continue to ignore it. Now, I'm like a broken record here in this house consistently raising this particular issue and there are a number of aspects to it. And in fairness, and I hope it will be reflected next month, I know that I've been highlighting the fact that, you know, for a service site being developed here in Dublin, the state is paying €30,714 on average to service that site, yet is not providing any assistance in our towns and villages to help refurbish derelict buildings. And I hope that we will see that reflected in the announcement next month. But we do need to go further in relation to it. And another issue that I have been highlighting consistently is the issue of older people in housing accommodation that is totally unsuitable to meet their needs. In, you know, two, an upstairs and a downstairs and two-storey and three-storey accommodation, too large for them to heat. And those older people would love to move into smaller accommodation. But there's two challenges in relation to that. One is actually the availability of that accommodation, which isn't available. And secondly is the security of tenure if they do move in to such accommodation. And right across this country, there are not one and two-bedroom bungalows available for older people to actually acquire, either to purchase or to rent, within the private housing market. The only accommodation that's available of that standard is within the local authority housing stock. And many, many older people, any older person with an existing property will not be eligible for that. So we need to take a proactive step, working in partnership with the private sector, and I know that's a nasty word for some people, in terms of developing one- and two-bedroom bungalows in a cluster-type setting for older people, close to the town centres in towns around this country, so that older people have the option to downsize. The second thing is that in a lot of those cases, that accommodation will be leased out to those older people. There needs to be special legislation brought in here in terms of security of tenure for that accommodation. And this is an issue that I've raised directly at the Cabinet table, the need to provide security to those older people. And we have seen, you know, tax incentives provided in some retirement villages associated with nursing homes across the country, to encourage older people to downsize, allow them to continue to live independently beside amenities that meet their needs. But I'll give you an example of one instance, an instance that I brought to your predecessor as Minister. Mary sold her home and moved to an unfurnished apartment in one of these retirement villages back in 2011. Now, in that case, there was an issue regarding ownership, the rent wasn't index-linked, and suddenly she got a single increase of an 86% rise in her rent, going from €430 a month to €800 a month. For someone that's on a fixed income, they cannot have a situation like that. If we are going to encourage older people to downsize, we need to address that issue. And this is an issue that I've brought directly to the Housing Minister, and nothing is being done about it. So we can pay lip service in terms of saying to older people to downsize, but they need security. Security that has not been provided to them in law at the moment, and that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. Thank you.
Thank you for downloading 🙏
If you publish this material on social media, we would be very grateful if you tagged VideoParliament. It helps us reach more people and keep building a transparent archive of Irish politics.
