Matt Carthy: ARP has distorted housing - government must act

Go raibh maith agat, I move the amendment Laskan Corla. The ministers will know that I and Sinn Féin have been raising serious concerns about the ARP, what's known as the Ukrainian Accommodation Recognition Payment for a long time. I find it interesting that Minister Brophy suggests that today's motion is about returning to the original intention of the scheme and I think that's a tacit acknowledgement that the scheme moved from its original intention. Remembering after the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the outbreak of war, there was an enormous generous response from the Irish people who I think should be commended and in particular those who opened their doors, who opened the spare room and the additional capacity in their homes to Ukrainians fleeing war. They absolutely deserved to be commended and when the original ARP scheme was brought before this house as I recall it had absolutely unanimous support. But government moved away from the original intention of that scheme, increasing the payment at one stage to 800 euro per month, which was a tax-free payment paid directly to landlords where no means test applied. Which meant that somebody could benefit from the ARP scheme who was on more wages than somebody who was also in desperate need of housing but this scheme wasn't available to them and the exclusionary nature of the scheme, available to Ukrainians fleeing war but not available to anybody else from anywhere else in the world including Irish people in this state, that led and heightened divisions within communities all over the country and despite the fact that Sinn Féin repeatedly brought those concerns to government they were repeatedly ignored. Likewise were the concerns that were repeatedly brought to government about the impact that this was having in certain communities on the private rental market. In fact for several years government refused point blank to acknowledge that this was having an impact on the private rental market and it was only then when the Department of Housing's own reports pointed out what was blatantly obvious that this was being utilised by landlords in order to receive a tax-free payment for which they could then demand top-up payments by the tenant or the resident with no obligations, none of the obligations that would apply if anybody else had been a tenant in the dwelling and yet it would took a huge amount of effort and wherewithal to drag the government to the place where they finally, finally, albeit reluctantly acknowledged that there was serious, serious problems in this scheme and that's why we've seen the backtracking that we have over the past number of months and the ultimate decision that the scheme will be due to end on the 31st of March 2027 but what we still don't have, we still don't have clarity as to what impact now government decisions will have on both the private rental and the wider housing situation because the truth is past March of next year there are going to be thousands of Ukrainians who are going to be moved from either ARP or state accommodation and once again in an all too familiar story we're going to end up with a belated, probably knee-jerk response. The government completely ignored the unfairness that was at the heart of this scheme in terms of putting in place a housing support for one cohort, nobody's disputing who were in need of housing and that wasn't available to any other single cohort. Putting in place a non-means-tested housing assistance, that is deeply unfair, that led to the divisions that we have seen heightened over the past number of years and of course which has been exploited by some very nasty, nasty actors but if you have a situation where on a factory floor you have two people in need of housing earning the exact same income and one is left to languish on a local authority housing list or perhaps not even qualified to be on a local authority housing list, being forced to deal with the private rental market where they've been absolutely exhorted and then another person earning the exact same wages with perhaps the exact same housing needs simply because they were born in a particular place on the planet has access to a housing support with no means test for which the landlord is getting a tax-free payment and for which then a top-up payment can be paid. That is clearly a roadmap to create divisions and dissent and that is something in my mind is absolutely unforgivable that not only government, because everybody recognises in 2022 the emergency situation, the need to be nimble, the need to introduce measures quickly, everybody accepts that but to allow that to continue for five years in my view is absolutely inexcusable and that is why on several occasions we have brought forward an amendment, very similar amendment on every occasion, simply says introduce a means test, be fair about this, introduce a means test, government rejected that, bring it back to the original intention. This payment should be for people who are housing and people fleeing war in their own homes. Everybody accepts it, that is a good initiative and that should be supported. In fact that's the type of initiative I think should be expanded to other people in need of housing and then every single time that that amendment has been brought forward, government have rejected it, government have denied any of the issues at heart and to their shame I have to say other opposition parties have also objected and refused to support those amendments and have called all sorts of names for me for having the audacity for looking for a bit of fairness and a bit of transparency in respect of all this and this is at the heart of, this scheme is ended now in March of next year and we still don't have, we still don't have transparency in respect of how many dwellings were utilised for this scheme that should and could have been available on the private rental market because that is the litmus test. The Department of Housing in their own documentation, in their own reports have acknowledged that this scheme had an impact on the private rental market yet government have consistently refused to actually divulge what exactly and how big that impact would be and that I think points to a fear on the part of government that if all of those figures would be divulged what they will have been seen to have done is through used taxpayers money to actually create a significant distortion especially in areas where rents would have been traditionally lower of the private rental market. The people have been denied housing as a result of this scheme and that to me is unacceptable. Can I just say to those opposition parties who've used this speech every time ARP comes up to attack Sinn Féin, have a read of the government's own report the regulatory impact analysis residential tenancies miscellaneous provisions bill 2026 because that set out very clearly what Sinn Féin have said time and time again in relation to this scheme that the ARP scheme is having a negative impact on the private rental sector. In my view that is beyond beyond doubt and dragging this out and then creating another cliff edge in March of next year where there will be thousands of people who we don't know yet how they're actually going to be housed and whether you're going to introduce something else that will further distort the private rental or the housing market even further. I would ask the ministers to learn from their mistakes and actually engage with all members of this house and the appropriate committees before the very last minute has been standard up until now.