Government & Opposition Allowing Ideology To Block Housing Solutions
Aontú Leader & Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín has accused the Government and much of the opposition of allowing ideology block solutions to the Housing Crisis.
An Teachta Tóibín:
“The last economic crash was caused by a housing crisis which was fuelled by the “Market is Always Right” ideology of the then FF government. The housing crisis engulfing so many families currently was in large part deepened by FF and FG deleting Social Housing from the housing equation and putting all their eggs in the private rental sector. As a result now annually there are 70,000 families in receipt of RAS and HAP. 70,000 families depending on the private rental sector. This is billions of euro of dead money for the state. Outside the current tenancies there is no long term benefit to the state. International investment vehicles have been purposefully supper charged by tax advantages in their competition over families and are creating a new tenant class”.
“Both FF and FG have been pulled kicking and screaming into any type of interventions such as rent controls, investment in social housing and tenant protections. Even where this has happened it has been minimalist and short of what has been necessary. On the other hand, much of the opposition has focused just on the social housing sector as the ONLY solution. SF, the Soc Dems, PbP and the Labour Party have all actively prevented homes being built by private builders in the middle of a National Housing emergency. They too have used rigid ideology to prevent houses being built”.
“All houses that are built provide housing solutions. All increase supply. All influence prices and rents downwards. We need practical and common solutions. We need both the state and the private sector to be operating at their top of their output. We need to seek a relaxation of EU rules in terms of state spending on housing in line with the €7 billion suggested by the ESRI. We need to cap rent increases, full stop. When government regulations lapse in the summer, there is a legal loophole that will allow landlords to impose an 8% rent increase, the equivalent of two years rent increase in one! The response of the Taoiseach is that the Housing Minister is planning to introduce a Bill in the Autumn to close the loophole. There is simply no excuse that rent increases. This is an national emergency and neither side of the political spectrum is treating it as such.
