Ireland’s housing crisis spilling into widespread social crisis, Dail told

The housing crisis is spilling out into a social crisis for the education, health and business sectors, the Dail has heard.

Various reports have highlighted that Ireland’s rents and housing prices are soaring amid a severe shortage of supply, with homeless figures reaching all-time highs for four consecutive months.

A survey carried out by the Irish Nurses and Midwives’ Organisation (INMO) found that two thirds of nursing graduates are considering emigrating.

Addressing Tanaiste Leo Varadkar during Leaders’ Questions, Sinn Fein finance spokesman Pearse Doherty read out the experiences of nurses struggling to rent or buy a house.

“Many of them have written to Sinn Fein in recent weeks to tell their heartbreaking experience of struggling to get by, and Tanaiste, when you read through what they told us, you can see very clearly that they’re exhausted, they’re anxious, they’re overwhelmed with stress.

“They struggle to find accommodation, they fork out extortionate sums of rent every single month, and they worry endlessly about the future.”

Reading out some testimonies, Mr Doherty told the Dail the story of a 21-year-old student nurse who is in her final year, who said she was homeless in Limerick for the first semester of last year.

He told TDs another story from a nurse, aged 33 and from Co Louth, who said she and her husband live in her parents’ garage and are emigrating next year as they cannot afford their own home.

He said that the party had received dozens of “heartbreaking” letters from people who are qualified or trained to look after patients in Ireland, but see no future here due to the housing crisis.

“When is the penny going to drop?” he asked Mr Varadkar.

“When are you going to actually take action because this is no longer a housing crisis.

“This is a social crisis that is creeping into every sphere of our society – from education, to health, to business.”

Mr Varadkar acknowledged that there was “a very deep” social crisis affecting the country.

“Everyone in government accepts that we have a deep crisis when it comes to housing.

“We acknowledge that that has led to a very deep social crisis that’s affecting our country, and indeed, a very deep personal crisis for a lot of people as well.

“And we also see it, as you’ve outlined, in some of the difficulties that the public sector, the health service, the education sector, private companies are having in recruiting and retaining staff particularly in Dublin and our cities, but not exclusively there.”

Mr Varadkar acknowledged that the 28,000 homes that will be built this year and the 16,000 first-time buyers’ homes, though high compared with the past 10-15 years, “is not enough”.

“It’s nowhere near enough and we need to do much better to turn the corner on housing in the months and years ahead.”

“The real problem is the new tenancies, new properties coming into the market,” he said, which isn’t affected by a rent freeze.

Labour leader Ivana Bacik raised concerns about vacant properties across the city and the non-activation of live planning permissions that were “fuelling these record homelessness figures”.

“This week, we’re hearing about shortages in teachers in schools, particularly across Dublin; about difficulties of retaining and recruiting teachers, nurses and staff in every sector,” she said, also citing hospitality, retail and multinationals.

“The difficulty arises because people can’t get appropriate accommodation in our city.

“We’ve got to a point where there is now a Dublin penalty, a penalty people pay where they are seeking to work and live in Dublin, but they simply cannot afford to do so.”

Responding to calls for more State intervention in the housing market, Mr Varadkar claimed there may have never been more than there is now.

“I’m absolutely in favour of State intervention and greater State intervention in the housing market – you may not believe that’s the case, it is the case and I’m not sure that there’s ever been more State intervention in the housing market than is the case now.

“Roughly 28,000 homes will be built this year, I would say roughly half of them are happening because of some form of State intervention,” he said.

Mr Varadkar also cited the affordable housing schemes, the Help-to-Buy scheme and cost-rental initiatives.

“Probably if you went through those 28,000 homes you would see in some form or another State intervention is helping or causing those homes to be built, and we will step that up next year and the year after – I guarantee you that.”