Mattie McGrath: Stop Demonising Landlords, Build More Homes
Mattie McGrath spoke about the housing crisis, urging an end to demonising landlords and calling for more housing supply through private builders and reduced regulation. He defended maternity-care sisters from criticism and argued that recent legislation has made it harder to provide homes.
Pressure on constituency office
His office is overrun with people unable to find properties, he said, describing a ‘‘perfect storm’’ of demand and shortages affecting constituents who have quit and cannot secure homes.
On landlords and developers
He warned against demonising landlords and developers, saying some landlords are incidental or accidental and that there are bad apples in every sector. He urged recognition that many landlords can finance and build and should not be universally vilified.
Housing supply and builders
He insisted "We must deliver more housing, simple as that," arguing for private housing and support for small builders. He said people should be allowed to build houses themselves as a way to increase supply and bring down rents.
Regulation and policy critique
He criticised the volume of legislation passed in the last decade and in committee, saying rules have made it harder to provide accommodation. He cited past closures of bedsits as examples of regulations with unintended consequences and urged policymakers to think beyond short-term effects.
Maternity care debate
He objected to attacks on the sisters who provided maternity care for generations, saying they are being demonised in ongoing debates. He also referenced ‘‘300 GLEs’’ in the course of his remarks about provision and costs, questioning where comparable support would come from.
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I too want to continue on the same team because my office is overrun with unfortunate people that are rinsed and noticed they quit and can't get properties and everything else but sure we have a perfect storm here. We have parties on the left here and some middle left who are demonising landlords. Some landlords are incidental landlords, they happen by accidental landlords, they never wanted to be but if we keep demonising the developers as bad people and the builders and all, there were some rogues but there's bad apples in every everything. We're here today, all day and yesterday, demonising the sisters who provided the maternity care in this country for decades generations and now we want to demonise them and we're getting 300 GLEs, where would you get the like of it? Do we want to pay the going rate for itself if we do buy the land? We're getting back the housing, same people objecting to this, objecting to that, demonising the landlords and if we don't have the people that weigh with all, they can borrow, can have finance, have brains and I'm not saying that we have no sort of brains but use it and skills and skills and then have the work and being able to build the houses. We must deliver more housing, simple as that and private housing and local authorities are not building the houses that fell off the cliff a long time ago from providing houses, we have to go back to that obviously but we also must support the small builders, we must allow people to build houses as their own thing and we must bring down rent that way because when the commodity is scarce, up and up and up and up and up and up and we've passed more regulations in here in the last ten years and I get five years in the housing committee and all we're doing is passing more legislation to make it more difficult and more people that provided houses and flats and all about going out of the land and we closed all the bedsits in Dublin, god would many people be glad of them now, we closed all them with mad legislation too, we don't think beyond our nose, think beyond the pail and think beyond what we're doing today and the implications of this legislation and these rules are having so it's time we had a wake up call and this house as well, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning.
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