No one was surprised by the failures of the Government's housing policy that were laid out in last week's report from the Housing Commission. I see those failures every day in my constituency office when I meet people struggling to pay rent or find a home, stuck on housing lists for 16 to 18 years and stuck in homelessness. The desperation out there is a direct result of the housing policies implemented by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, supported by the Labour Party and the Green Party, for decades. We are not just talking about ten years, as the Minister said earlier; we are talking about 50 years of failed policy. The report calls for an increase in our social housing stock to 20% of all housing. We used to have more than 20% of our stock made up of social housing. We built tens of thousands of homes when this country was practically broke. The report calls for a return to what we had before the parties of government decided to turn our housing policy into a failed policy to allow the big banks and developers to make profit instead of providing homes for ordinary people.

Nowhere is this failure clearer than in the rental sector. Average rents more than doubled between 2012 and 2022. I assure the Tánaiste that wages did not double in that time. The Government stood by and allowed rents to eat more and more into people's pay packets and their standard of living. What did they get for paying rent of up to €2,500 or more per month? They got a rental sector in which housing standards are not properly inspected, rent controls that, according even to the Housing Commission, are not properly enforced, a clear lack of security of tenure in which people fulfil all their obligations as a tenant and can still be turfed out, and a serious lack of protections from illegal evictions, which have become endemic.

The Housing Commission has clear recommendations for the rental sector. I will focus on one of them, that is, facilitating sales of rental properties with tenants in situ. The report states in section 6:

To facilitate sales with tenants in situ, the rent regulations need to be reformed as rental valuations will be an important component in valuing the overall selling price of a property. In addition, mortgages for the purchase of private rented dwellings would need to allow purchases with the tenant in situ.

This is a clear solution to one of the biggest problems facing renters, namely, the lack of security of tenure, and it would go a long way to ending no-fault evictions and securing renters in their homes. Such an arrangement is standard for commercial property. If it is good enough for businesses, it should be good enough for people's homes. I go further and say there should never be evictions because of the sale of a property. That is in my party's housing policy. Will the Government follow the recommendation of the Housing Commission and facilitate sales of rental properties with tenants in situ?

First, we have a very extensive tenant in situ programme. It has been very effective.

Not according to the commission.

The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, introduced it approximately two years ago. It has been very successful and effective in preventing evictions by giving the option of going to the seller and saying the council will buy the house, thereby enabling the person living there to continue as a tenant of the council. It has been very effective, with up to 1,800 approvals so far. I will get the most up-to-date figure.

The Government appointed the Housing Commission and tasked it with examining long-term housing policy. Of its 83 recommendations, 65 at varying stages of implementation, with some more advanced than others. Comprehensive consideration is being given to the recommendations. I am not sure whether the Deputy agrees with the commission's recommendations in respect of the rental market in terms of possibly changing the rent pressure zones, RPZs, and moving to a different system of reference areas. There would be some complexity to that but we will examine it. The Government, working with many in the Oireachtas, pushed for the RPZ system, which the Housing Commission has described as reactive. The political system, not just the Government, has been very anxious to intervene in the rental market on an ongoing basis. On a preliminary reading, it seems to me the Housing Commission is reflecting on that and suggesting the Oireachtas should maybe be less reactive. That is a debate we will have in the House.

Whereas everyone has focused on the highlight opening chapter of the Housing Commission's report, there has been precious little confirmation from anyone in the House as to whether they agree specifically with aspects of the report, particularly in respect of the rental market. I would be interested in parties opposite coming forward with substantive views on the substance of some of the recommendations, particularly in terms of the rental market.

Regarding a social housing Act, for example, that is not something that will happen overnight. We would have to examine again in detail what is envisaged. There was a comprehensive report. My understanding is that the Housing Commission does not believe local authority housing tenants should have a right of tenant purchase. The reason it has advanced for its position is that it wants to increase forever the provision of housing stock by local authorities. Under the current system, approximately 50% of social housing new builds are built by approved social housing bodies that do not allow for tenant purchase. I am not clear whether there is consensus within the Oireachtas that tenant purchase should be ruled out completely. We will examine that. I am sure there are nuances within the report and within the commission. It deserves comprehensive examination.

I thank the Tánaiste for his reply but it does not answer my question. The situation in Ireland is that 5,000 people have entered emergency accommodation since the ban on no-fault evictions was lifted last year. Terminations of tenancies rose by 20% after the ban was lifted, with more than 19,000 households issued with eviction notices last year. We have record homelessness. More than 100 families became homeless in the last three months of 2023 due to no-fault evictions. In the case of 63% of eviction notices last year, the reason given was sale of the property. Focus Ireland has called this the evict-to-sell crisis.

The Housing Commission is making the point that people should not be forced to leave a tenancy for the reason of the sale of the home, as is the case with commercial businesses. I have seen apartments above businesses sell with the tenant in situ. I am asking whether the Government supports the commission's view that there should be no no-fault evictions for people who are paying their rent and keeping the house up to standard when landlords decide they want to sell and get rid of their tenants. That has to change and that is what the Housing Commission is referring to. That is my question.

I do not think the commission is recommending no-fault evictions.

It is recommending stopping them.

That is not what it says in the report. One of its recommendations is:

Regulate market rents fairly and effectively by reforming the current system of rent regulation and establishing a system of ‘Reference Rents’. This reform should be informed by evidence-based reviews on the impact of regulated market rents on rented housing supply, accessibility and affordability. Such reviews should be conducted on a regular basis...

Another recommendation is to "[r]eform and consolidate standards for rented dwellings through... single, nationwide dwelling standards..." That is fine. The report further recommends amending the standards for rental accommodation in private and cost-rental homes, regulating the landlord functions of local authority-owned dwellings and formalising local authority-tenant relations. The implementation of reforms to ensure a more effective enforcement model is also recommended. That is all fine.

My reference was to a specific recommendation in section 6.

Yes, and I have gone through the recommendations for the rental sector. I do not see any reference to a ban on no-fault evictions.

It seems that the commission wants a significant reform of the existing rental market regulation. That will take significant work. Meanwhile, the Government is absolutely committed to the tenant in situ scheme, as we have demonstrated by buying houses where people are at risk of eviction. We tell the council to buy the house and keep the person in the house.