A chara, - There is now a crisis in the provision of public housing in Dublin city. This fact was acknowledged by the City Council when the members of Dublin Corporation passed a motion at their January, 1999, meeting stating that the situation in the city has reached crisis proportions.
At present, there are some 8,100 families on the housing waiting lists, that is people in need of housing who are unable to provide accommodation from their own resources. In addition, there are over 5,000 existing Corporation tenants who have applied for transfer to alternative accommodation due to overcrowding or by reason of the unsuitability of their existing dwelling. There are approximately 800 applicants on the housing waiting list in the SouthEast Inner City area alone. The Corporation is undertaking an assessment of housing needs at the moment and it is likely that these figures will increase substantially when the assessment is completed.
The amount of people seeking housing is at a level not seen for over 20 years and a number of factors have given rise to this situation. Successive Governments have starved Dublin Corporation of the monies required to undertake a realistic building programme. Three hundred dwellings were built or bought by the Corporation in 1998. This year, the Government has increased the Corporation's capital allocation to allow for only 400 new houses. This paltry increase will have only a negligible effect on the problem.
Last year central Government allocated £26 million to Dublin Corporation for its entire house-building programme. A single private house in Killiney changed hands in 1998 for £5.9 million. The contrast in the resources available is stark.
In addition to the under-funding of the house construction programme, sites in the ownership of the Corporation which could have been used to provide public housing have been sold off to property speculators over the past number of years, on the government's insistence. The recent reorganisation of local government in the Dublin area led to the transfer of a huge proportion of the Corporation's housing stock to the new County Councils and these transferred dwellings will shortly be unavailable to applicants on the city waiting list.
One of the major causes of the crisis is the spiralling of house prices, which has forced couples who previously would have purchased private housing out of the market and on to the Corporation's list. The buoyancy in the housing market has sent rents in the private sector through the roof and this has placed severe burdens on private tenants with low or middle incomes. While landlords' profits soar, the physical condition of many private rented flats is abominable. Property developers and speculators are the only beneficiaries of the massive increase in house prices.
Housing is treated in this economy as a commodity, to be traded for profit, just like other goods and services. This is wrong. Sinn Fein have always campaigned for the right of all citizens to decent, secure and affordable housing. Our commitment on this issue dates back to the 1960s.
The mere declaration of a housing emergency will not achieve anything. What is needed is positive action now to solve the problem. Sinn Fein is specifically calling for:
The allocation of sufficient moneys to Dublin Corporation for a crash building programme, with particular emphasis on building in the inner city.
A minimum of 40 per cent of housing sites in the Dublin Dockland area to be allocated to social housing - Local Authority, Co-op and Co-op purchase housing and affordable private housing.
A freeze in private rent increases.
A drive to register all privately rented dwellings with full enforcement of standards.
Security of tenure for private tenants.
The housing crisis requires to be tackled immediately. Sinn Fein will continue to pursue these policies on behalf of the people of this city. - Is mise, Daithi Doolan,
Public Representative, Sinn Fein, Dublin South-East Inner City, Pearse Street, Dublin 2.