Labour TD Marie Sherlock has said that renters are being “exploited” and has called for the government to step in.
The Dublin Central TD was speaking in the Dáil on a debate on housing.
Last May, a report was published by the Housing Commission, which said current government policy on housing was failing and in need of a “radical” overhaul.
The report said that Ireland’s housing system has been plagued by “ineffective decision-making and reactive policy-making where risk aversion dominates.”
The modern housing market is dominated by renters, and Sherlock told the Dáil that 49% of people in her constituency of Dublin Central, which takes in Cabra, Drumcondra, Glasnevin and Phisbourough, are renters.
“We hear all the talk about the first-time buyer’s grant or whatever, but that is not even relevant because you cannot even buy a first-time home in the constituency in Dublin city centre and in the areas adjoining it.”
She said, “we need to see a much greater number of cost-rental and affordable purchase schemes, but we have only one such scheme in Dublin Central at this point in time.”
In recent weeks, the government has come under pressure for wanting to abolish rent pressure zones and the Tenant in Situ schemes.
Sherlock suggested that the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, which was established to streamline Ireland’s rent system, is not fit for its current purpose.
She noted that in the Bill itself, there are 148 references to rent, but not one single, clear definition of what constitutes rent.
“For the vast majority of people, the concept of rent is a relatively straightforward concept in terms of the payment covering the roof over their head and the ability to use the amenities in the house or the apartment. For some, the lack of a definition of rent has been exploited by landlords to put in vague concepts of additional charges.”
The ambiguity around the language of rent in the bill has created an environment where “vulnerable and desperate renters are left wide open for exploitation,” she said.
She questioned if the government were looking to favour a model where the private sector and investors play a part in delivering housing, or if the government itself were going to play a larger part.
The Dublin Central TD pointed to the massive boom in housing in the 1970s and the early 2000s, saying there is historical precedent for the government to build a massive number of houses.
She criticised what she called the “clap on the back attitude” from the government on housing.
“We are expected to be grateful and wondrous that social housing output is supposedly back at 1970s levels or back to the early 2000s levels but that is not something to celebrate, that is something to be ashamed of.”
“The reality is that social housing output per capita now is approximately a third of what it was back in the 1970s. If we consider that household size is considerably smaller now than what it was then, our social housing output relative to the enormous need of our country appears to be all the more anaemic.”
In recent weeks, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has implied he wants less government intervention in housing and wants private market forces to play a bigger part in increasing housing supply.
In recent weeks, the Taoiseach said “you need state and private sector investment and the opposition are not coming up with concrete proposals at all,” accusing them of practising “absolute fundamentalism” on the housing issue.
“They’re saying no to this, no to that, but they’re not actually coming up with viable, concrete proposals, in my view. And we certainly don’t need a state construction agency. I don’t support that proposal.”
Labour walked from coalition talks in early December after it became clear that their coalition demand of a state construction agency was not going to be entertained by Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael.
Speaking in the Dáil this week, the Taoiseach said “I was not particularly impressed with what the Labour put forward in the general election campaign.”
He commented “establishing a new national building agency would have only delayed things. It would take years to establish and it is a kind of rowing the clock back to earlier eras and to models that simply would not work now in terms of where we are with regard to house construction models, builders and so on.”
“I do not see people in the construction sector flocking to be employees of a national building agency, not to mention the legislation that would be required to establish it, and so on.”
Fellow Northside opposition TD Rory Hearne has similarly been critical of the government’s approach to housing since it took office in January.
Recent figures from the Central Statistics Office showed an almost 40% drop in planning permissions for apartments in 2024.
These figures, according to Hearne, is further evidence that the government’s housing system is “broken.”
Hearne, who serves as the party spokesperson on housing, said: “these figures are stark and have huge implications for future housing developments.”
“Apart from the significant reduction in planning permissions granted for apartments, the CSO data also reveals that the number of new homes approved annually fell by over 21 per cent in 2024.
“It is also deeply concerning that there are around 90,000 homes with planning permission that have not yet been developed.”
The Dublin North-West TD said, “for the past decade, successive governments have put all their eggs in the investor fund basket, relying on a completely unsustainable build-to-rent model that only delivers unaffordable homes.”
He called on the government to “come clean” and admit that their housing strategy “is in complete disarray.”
“The latest CSO figures confirm what we already suspected – that the government is going backwards instead of forwards when it comes to housing policy.”