I will ask about child homelessness and protections for renters. The Taoiseach has consistently stated that the no-fault ban on evictions last year did not work. However, last December, after the eviction ban was introduced, the number of children growing up without a home dropped for the first time in 11 months, and for three months in a row the number of children who were homeless fell. Since the eviction ban was lifted, the number of children growing up without a home has increased every single month. Now, almos…

The Social Democrats will be supporting the Bill. I thank Deputy Ó Broin for bringing it forward. If anything, and I mean this in a constructive fashion, we think the Bill is too weak. As the Deputies in Sinn Féin have said, this is a modest proposal. We would like to see the situation in place in most European countries, and there is nothing radical about this at all. People who pay their rent do not get evicted. That is what happens in most European countries. I do not know how many times I need to say this for t…

I move: "That the Bill be read a Second Time." I thank the Minister of State for attending. Unlike the Topical Issue debate, we have the right Minister, as such, for this Bill. There is no better Minister for it from the Department. I know he shares a lot of the same concerns as I have on this. I wish to state at the outset my firm view, and that of the Social Democrats, which I have articulated for a long time, that nobody who pays their rent should be at risk of eviction or homelessness, as is the case in most ot…

I thank the Minister of State for his response, which was interesting. If I listened to just what he said at the beginning and the end, I would be delighted. It is everything in between that causes me concern. Effectively, my understanding of what the Minister of State said is that it is his view, as well as that of the Government, that while they are allowing this Bill proceed to Committee Stage, they really do not agree with it at all. That is what I heard. The Government feels that the existing legislation is fi…

Based on a sample from what he knows. He has seen a sample where there were four attempts to use it, and from that four rulings were made by the RTB in favour of the renters. That would concur with the point I was making, which is that this clause is not being used by landlords and that they are not having findings on their side but that it is allowing for a tactical use of serving eviction notices, causing all the upheaval that goes with that and all the appeals and the process that are involved. Over that time, a…

The Tyrrelstown amendment was introduced to protect renters from eviction in cases where entire apartment blocks of renters were being evicted and when the apartments were being sold. The amendment was introduced to ensure that where ten or more rental homes were being sold together, renters would not be evicted and would be able to stay in their homes while the homes were sold. However, the amendment has proven ineffective as it has a number of get-out clauses that are exploited by landlords. We have seen in the c…

There is a danger here that we almost get used to this response from Government and become desensitised to it. It is not a response. What has happened here is not acceptable. We have record levels of homelessness and rent and very clear data showing that rent regulation has been utterly flouted across this country. What happens? The Minister responds to this motion, which I thank Deputy Ó Broin for tabling, with a few comments mainly attacking the Opposition, and then legs it out of the House two minutes later. Tha…

I ask the Tánaiste about the record number of people who are homeless. There are now 13,179 people living in homeless emergency accommodation. This is the highest number ever recorded in the history of the State. This includes 190 pensioners and almost 4,000 children who are growing up without a home and will spend Christmas in homeless emergency accommodation. At the same time, €220 million that was allocated and was supposed to be spent on building local authority social housing this year has not been spent and h…

The stated intention of the Bill to provide a more efficient and robust planning system is a good idea. A consolidated and streamlined Bill is necessary and welcome, and I acknowledge that a great deal of work has gone into it. However, it falls short of its stated goals. For example, it does nothing to ensure meaningful and early engagement in the planning process with communities, which would reduce conflict and delays. Such engagement should be strong under the Bill. We do not see provisions on co-creation, whic…

We certainly did not receive any correspondence from him. This is not the first time the Government has claimed to have engaged with the Opposition only for it to turn out that it had just engaged with one Opposition party. This poor practice needs to change. We would welcome any engagement. The Bill runs to more than 700 pages, making it one of the largest ever produced in the history of the State, yet there was only one week between it being published and Second Stage. No rational person could expect us to have r…

I always find the Bills digest very useful. It is just that they did not have time to do a comprehensive one.

Sanctions.

There are 48,000 homes vacant between the two censuses. They should be getting charged the tax. I wish to ask the Taoiseach about long-term leasing deals. A US investor has paid €75 million to buy up a Dublin social housing portfolio consisting of 156 apartments. That is almost €500,000 for each apartment. Investors are willing to shell out such huge sums as the State has guaranteed the return on their investment through long-term leases. Long-term leases are exceptionally bad value for money and turn social housin…

The programme for Government commits to holding a referendum on housing. The Taoiseach has clarified to me in this Chamber that it will be on the right to housing. However, there does not seem to be any urgency from the Government in progressing this referendum. Increasingly, it is looking like it is not going to happen in the lifetime of the Government. With just over 12 months left in its term of office, there is still no date for this referendum to take place. It increasingly looks like the commitment made in th…

I will raise a matter I have raised several times. It concerns the well-being of a number of students who graduated from St. Michael's House, Baldoyle, this year. Shortly before they graduated, they and their families received a generic letter that told them there would not be any places for them in day services in September. The letter was not even personalised. Despite promises being made by the Minister of State, several of these young people are still without any day services. This is having a detrimental impac…

I strongly condemn the rise in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia around the world in the last weeks. The life of a child in Gaza has exactly the same value as the life of a child in Israel or Ireland. If a child loses their parents, that grief is the same whether that child is Irish, Palestinian or Israeli. It knows no borders and no boundaries. During the Nakba, or disaster, in 1948, between 700,000 and 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes or forced to flee in fear of their lives. Most thought they wou…

I will be making a short contribution to this debate and will not be using the full time or anything close to it. This is because usually on Second Stage I outline the amendments I intend bringing forward and the rationale for them. Given that we accept the independence and impartiality of the commission, we will not be bringing forward amendments to its suggestions regarding the boundary reviews and constituencies. I will make a number of brief points related to the legislation and the recommendations the commissi…

I want to ask about the use it or lose it measures the Minister has promised on a number of occasions. Where are they? When will they be introduced? Will he give an update on that?

I will address issues regarding the residential zoned land tax in my second contribution. According to the Department of Finance, planning permissions for 100,000 homes around the country are unactivated. In the programme for Government, the Minister gave a clear commitment to introduce lose it or use it measures to penalise developers who sit on planning permission. More than three years later, we now read reports that developers have got yet another big win, as these measures have been scrapped. That is what is b…

Will the Minister explain why the residential zoned land tax is being delayed until 1 February 2025? We are in the middle of a housing disaster for people. These measures are needed as quickly as possible to eliminate any land hoarding and to reduce speculation. Why kick it down the road yet again, given the crisis that we are in at the moment? What can possibly explain more delays in the approach? That is not treating this like the emergency that it is. Will the Minister tell us why that has been done? The explana…