Housing crisis needs decisive action

TD for Dublin South West Seán Crowe has appealed to the Government to take what Sinn Féin are saying about the housing crisis on board and build a multifaceted solution to the housing crisis that is gripping the state, rather than dismissing every suggestion out of hand because ‘it won’t fix the housing crisis’.

Speaking in the Dáil recently during the debate on a Sinn Féin Bill to ban short term lets in Rent Pressure Zones, Teachta Crowe said: “There were 14 rental properties on one rental website in Dublin 24 this morning. Three of them were basically sheds or granny flats in the bottom of someone’s garden. However, many full properties sit on short-term letting sites, taken out of the rental market during a housing crisis and little more than profiteering. “The housing market is a machine with many moving parts. That is the way I see it. The problem at present is that not many of those parts are moving anymore.

“Every time Sinn Féin or others in opposition bring forward a motion or a Bill to help alleviate some of the damage Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have caused, we are told that it will not fix the housing crisis. We heard some of it from members of the Opposition who consistently vote with Government. We accept this Bill alone will not solve the housing crisis. The vacant property tax that Sinn Féin has been calling for for years will not solve the housing crisis by itself.

“Just like the affordable housing motion Sinn Féin put forward to the Dáil weeks ago, it all forms part of a solution. Rather than dismiss the Opposition out of hand, the Government might try to take on board some of what it says because right now its own attempts are simply not working. There is a general consensus, not only in these Houses but outside.

“For some bizarre reason, the Government appears to many to be totally paralysed in face of the housing crisis. Maybe it simply is not particularly interested in solving it. I do not know what the problem is but there is a problem.

“I listened during the week to a Fianna Fáil Senator complaining without any shred of irony about having to sleep in his car. That is the reality facing many of my constituents every day. Only it is so awful, it would be comical.

“We need to ban short-term lets in rent pressure zones. We need a ban on rent increases on all existing and new tenancies. We need a Government to put money back in renters’ pockets through a refundable tax credit worth a month’s rent. The Government must also accept we need to see affordable cost rental delivered at scale.

“We need to be proactive. We need decisive action. We need to fix what is broken. The housing crisis is a multifaceted problem and we need a multifaceted approach for addressing what is clearly a housing programme that is not working and not delivering for ordinary people.”