Housing Spokesperson, Senator Rebecca Moynihan also said the government's paltry commitment to cost rental will not solve the rental crisis.
Senator Moynihan was speaking after the launch of a Threshold survey which revealed that 91% of respondents found it difficult or extremely difficult to find rental accommodation and 19% are paying more than 50% of their take-home pay on rent.
Senator Moynihan said: "The findings of this Threshold survey are the result of years of failed Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil housing policy. Minister O'Brien brought forward the biggest housing budget in the history of the state in recent years but instead of investing in direct build housing much of the budget was channelled to the private sector through shared equity and the failing Help to Buy scheme in the form of a developers bonanza.
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"The Government need to place much more of an emphasis on cost and affordable rental and this is confirmed by the findings of this survey. The 400 cost rental units announced by Minister O’Brien in Budget 2021 to be delivered through the AHB sector are not enough and do not even have a timeline for delivery.
"The fact that 70% of respondents said that they have lived in the private rented sector for six years or more is an indication of the stark effects of these failed Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil policies that are condemning people to a never ending cycle of struggling to pay extremely high rents. The Government need to maintain the eviction ban beyond until at least March. We know most people who become homeless come from the private rental sector and the situation will worsen once the Government remove the moratorium on evictions and PUP payments expire next year.
"Labour believes that Housing should be delivered directly by the State. In our alternative budget we set out plans to seek financing to spend €500m on 4,000 affordable or cost rental homes. Publicly owned land needs to be used for the cost rental development of housing and until the Government accept this, the rental crisis will only deepen."
