Richard Boyd Barrett: A right to housing is needed
Richard Boyd Barrett backed a right-to-housing bill during a Dáil debate, arguing that the worsening housing crisis demands stronger state action. He highlighted people facing homelessness despite working, and called for higher social housing income thresholds, rent controls and an end to selling public land for private profit.
Boyd Barrett said the number of people in homeless and emergency accommodation had risen from below 10,000 when a right-to-housing measure passed in 2021 to 17,000. He also cited roughly 110,000 households on social housing and HAP lists, while warning that some people do not qualify for those lists.
He described the case of Cuiva, a childcare worker with three children who, he said, had been evicted twice and was now homeless and no longer eligible for social housing or HAP because her earnings exceeded the threshold. He argued that families are being failed by income limits and housing policies that leave people without support.
Boyd Barrett criticised outsourcing social housing to private developers, saying this can favour smaller homes over family housing. He also challenged the sale of public land, citing development at the former RTÉ campus and Cherrywood, and argued that public land should be used to meet housing need.
He called for a constitutional right to housing, higher eligibility thresholds, rent controls and measures to prevent people being made homeless. He also urged people to take to the streets, pointing to protests in Spain and Germany. Watch the recording to hear the full contribution.
Homelessness and housing eligibility
Boyd Barrett said the number of people in homeless and emergency accommodation had risen from below 10,000 when a right-to-housing measure passed in 2021 to 17,000. He also cited roughly 110,000 households on social housing and HAP lists, while warning that some people do not qualify for those lists.
Families caught in the system
He described the case of Cuiva, a childcare worker with three children who, he said, had been evicted twice and was now homeless and no longer eligible for social housing or HAP because her earnings exceeded the threshold. He argued that families are being failed by income limits and housing policies that leave people without support.
Public land and private development
Boyd Barrett criticised outsourcing social housing to private developers, saying this can favour smaller homes over family housing. He also challenged the sale of public land, citing development at the former RTÉ campus and Cherrywood, and argued that public land should be used to meet housing need.
Calls for action
He called for a constitutional right to housing, higher eligibility thresholds, rent controls and measures to prevent people being made homeless. He also urged people to take to the streets, pointing to protests in Spain and Germany. Watch the recording to hear the full contribution.
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Transcript
Thank you Ciarán and thanks to Deputy Hearn for bringing forward this bill which we're very very happy to support.
It'll be interesting to see. I think the indications are the government are not going to support it.
And I know from the last Dáil, I think Dr O'Brien had similar bills.
I had a bill that actually got passed amazingly on the right to housing in 2021.
I think it was a mistake. The government forgot to call a vote.
So we actually got the right to housing referendum passed.
But of course nothing was done about it.
And the housing situation has continued to get worse.
The number of people in homeless and emergency accommodation has got steadily worse.
Since then, I think they were probably at that stage below 10,000.
Now they're up to 17,000. At the time that bill was passed.
And the numbers of people on housing lists, if you include everybody who's on a housing list,
both those on the social housing list and on HAP lists, are about the same.
110,000 households roughly.
And of course, and I'm going to go into this in a second, people who don't even qualify for lists.
And the failure of the government is spectacular.
And despite listing off all the things they say they're doing, the actuality is the situation has continued to get worse.
And here's just one of the human examples about why we need a right to housing.
Cuiva is now homeless for the second time because of two subsequent evictions.
She has three children.
Last Christmas, I read out a letter from one of her children who said in her letter to Santa for Christmas
that the only thing her child wanted was a home for Christmas.
There's still an emergency accommodation.
What is it now?
Ten months later, and for the second time in their lives, evicted through no fault of their own.
Cuiva is a childcare worker.
And because you haven't raised the social housing income thresholds, because you want to deny, in my opinion,
that's why you won't raise them, you want to deny people eligibility for social housing,
she's homeless, but she's now been taken off the housing list.
Because she's gone over, as a childcare worker, she's gone over the eligibility limit.
Which for a single person is now 43,930, but she earns 44,272.
So here's someone, to use your phraseology, who gets up early in the morning,
who's got three children to look after,
who are writing to Santa saying they just want a home,
and they've been homeless for the second time through no fault of their own
because they're evicted because you allow landlords to evict families like hers.
And she is now trapped. She's trapped.
She's now not eligible for HAP.
Not only can she not get a social housing, she's not eligible for HAP either.
In this crazy situation, where if you're in a HAP tenancy, it doesn't matter if your earnings go up.
If you're in a social house, which you should be in, because if the government hadn't failed her,
it wouldn't make any difference if her income went up, she'd just pay a higher rent.
But she's homeless, she's in the worst possible position,
and now she's eligible for nothing because her pay has gone over the housing limit
that you won't raise despite us appealing to you for the last two years.
And people are being knocked off the lists all the time,
being punished for working, for getting up early in the morning,
as well as, of course, the hopelessness of those who are actually on the lists,
in particular families, in particular families.
Because so much of the social housing you boast about, or the housing you boast about delivering,
is outsourced to the private sector who don't want to build family homes.
Because they can get more units, one and two bedroom units, on a site,
than if they had to build three or four bedrooms.
That's why family homelessness, in particular, has gone up.
Because you're relying on people who want to make money from every site,
rather than deliver for the housing need.
Again, something that's been pointed out repeatedly to you.
But you continue to outsource it.
And worse, you then sell off public land.
I mean, it grieves me every single time I go out the N11 to pass by the RTE campus
to look at the most profitable house builder in the country,
now building, on part of the old RTE campus, 500 apartments.
Now why, on what was public land, is a private builder,
whose profits have this year, or last year, gone up to 168 million,
increasing every single year, so they are going to profit,
they are going to decide what proportion of the houses they build will be three or two bedroom,
and of course a very small proportion will be three bedroom, no four bedrooms,
for the bigger families that need them, because it's profitable.
And you gave them the site.
The state allowed that to happen, instead of the LDA taking it.
In Cherrywood, in my area, the biggest residential development in the country at the moment,
DLR Properties, a wholly owned subsidiary of D'leary-Rathdown County Council,
but where the councillors, the elected councillors, have no control over what it does with its property,
but there are Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors on the board,
not anybody from the left, of course, have decided to sell it.
To sell public land, which could deliver 1,200 houses,
so some other profiteer can make money,
we'll decide whether there's any family housing,
we'll get all the profits that are made from the land.
And now you're rezoning land everywhere,
instantly increasing the value of the land, which is all in private hands,
so that more people can profit out of the housing misery of people like Cuiva.
So, a right to housing would be helpful in that regard,
because you couldn't, if there was a constitutional right,
there would be legal backing and an imperative to make sure people like Cuiva
didn't get made homeless, and that there was a prioritisation of state resources
to provide housing for people like Cuiva, and most importantly, for her children.
Or Andy, this is another, but Andy is just another guy,
Cuiva's from Ballybrack, Loughlinstown, by the way, just mentioned.
Another person, Andy, also, he's 25.
He has now been threatened from being evicted from the council house
that he's lived in all his life, by the council.
Lived all his life.
Because his mother died recently.
It was tragic enough to lose your parent,
but then as a consequence, because apparently he's not the primary tenant,
his other brother, so it's technicality.
He's never lived anywhere else.
He's now being told to get out.
And not offered anywhere else.
Now, that's just unbelievable.
Why, against a background of record levels of homelessness,
would the state allow somebody to be thrown,
because then he would be down in emergency accommodation.
Why would you do that?
But this is the sort of madness we have, because we don't have a right to housing.
Now, I have to be honest.
I have to be honest.
You see, I think we need to start to get radical over this.
And we need to start to do what they're doing in Spain.
Because the young people there, and the older people,
an 87-year-old woman being evicted,
but it's young people out in the streets, just said,
we've had enough of this shit.
And I've been arguing this stuff,
I've had people in this house for a long, long time.
And to be honest, we need to get angry,
and we need to do something about it.
Because it's unacceptable, these sort of situations.
And you can multiply those cases by thousands.
People trapped in this situation, they've done nothing wrong.
There's people profiteering.
Cairnholmes, profits up.
Glenveig, profits up.
The Flynn Group, Ballymore, and so on,
don't even publish their profits, but we know they've gone up.
Iris Rees, profits have gone up.
So people are profiteering out of this stuff,
they're hoarding land, they're speculating,
they're charging record house prices,
they're charging record rents,
and ordinary working people are being left
in these dire circumstances.
And the young people, a majority of young people
are now saying, we're going to leave the country.
We're going to leave, because we don't think
we can ever be able to afford to live here.
But don't worry, the lads are making profits.
So it doesn't matter.
And that's why, in my opinion, Rory,
that's why they won't do it.
Because it will infringe on the profits of these people.
They are worried that we might actually control prices,
we might control rents,
we might take the land bank back off them.
And you see what Delinke elected,
the left-wing party in Berlin,
expropriate the landlords.
That's what they're worried about,
and you see they're worried that a right to housing
might lead to that.
But that's what needed to happen.
And by the way, this was said back in the early 70s,
more or less, in the Kenny Report.
Take the zoned land bank off these people,
so that we deliver housing for need.
That's what needs to happen.
There is greedy speculators
controlling the price of land,
controlling the available property,
controlling what's built,
and the consequence is housing misery,
and a housing crisis that just goes on,
and on, and on.
So we have to stop.
We have to stop this for the sake of Cuiva,
for our children, for Andy,
for people like them.
But even if you're not going to do that, Minister,
will you start to say to local authorities,
will you raise the thresholds?
Will you start to say to local authorities,
don't make people homeless?
Will you start to control the rents?
Will you stop selling off public land
to people who are just profiteering?
Thanks, Rory, but to be honest,
we need to be out on the streets
as well as putting bills forward in here,
the way they're doing in Spain,
and they're doing in Germany.