Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will speak to my party's amendment No. 11. It was not today or yesterday that I started to raise with the Minister the need to introduce a rent credit. Time and again, he has taken the position of telling us a rent credit would go into the pocket of landlords. Those words were echoed by his party leader and the Taoiseach. Year after year, the Minister said a rent credit would make the situation worse, there would be less housing and it would be a State subsidy to landlords. Obviously, he was only responding to one part of our suggestion, that of a tax relief for renters. That had to be accompanied, however, by a three-year rent freeze. In fairness, at least the Minister's officials have been consistent because they advise him time and again that the likely outcome of this will be higher rents for the exact reason Deputy Barry outlined, namely, that there is nothing in large swathes of the State to prevent landlords from increasing rents accordingly. That is a serious problem.

I welcome that the Minister has got halfway there and has seen the light and done a U-turn. I welcome that he has agreed with at least half of what we are saying in terms of a rent credit. It is now time to go the whole hog and introduce a rent freeze across the State. It is such a pity the Minister did not do this three years ago when we asked him to do it. Can he imagine the impact for renters if he had listened to what we were saying on our amendments to the Finance Bill three years ago? At that time, the average rent in Donegal was €658 per month. It is now €933. Renters are paying over €3,000 more as a result of the failure of the Minister to introduce a rent freeze. Rents in Donegal are among the lowest in the State. They are no longer at the levels we thought. However, the county also has a low level of disposable income. In other areas rents are far higher and this has become the straw that broke the camel's back. The Minister's refusal to act has caused rents to increase year after year at record levels. As a result of his inaction on this matter, rents have placed an additional burden of thousands of euro on renters.

It is not only that prices have gone up. Under the stewardship of the Minister and his Government, we now see that there were only 495 rental units on the market as of 1 July compared with 1,500 at any time between 2014 and 2019. That is the extent of the rental collapse under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. I am sure the Minister will find some imaginative way to try to spin this that it is all Sinn Féin's fault but we will wait to see what he has to say on that.

The recent comment by the Tánaiste, when referring to young people considering emigrating due to the burden and stress of renting in this State, that the grass is always greener but young people will not find lower rents if they emigrate shows how out of touch the Minister's party is. The Tánaiste was inundated with messages from people who left these shores and are in different places, for example, in European cities such as Brussels and Berlin, where rents are not only cheaper but accommodation is more spacious and secure.

The Minister has spent years opposing and arguing against Sinn Féin's calls for rent relief in the form of a refundable tax relief of one month's rent to be put back into renters' pockets. We proposed a rate of 8.3% capped at €1,500. When I read the reply to a freedom of information request I put in on the advice the officials were giving the Minister on the renter's credit he is bringing forward, I was interested in one of the comments in the papers - that it is understood the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage is seeking a rental tax credit of 8.5% on annual rental costs capped at €1,500 at an estimated cost of €273 million. That is actually the Sinn Féin proposal. Then again, maybe it should not be surprising to me because this is a Minister who is completely out of ideas and who has overseen, on behalf of the Government, a crisis that is out of control.

What needs to happen is that the rent credit should be increased and should be refundable. Crucially, it should not go into the pockets of landlords, which is why the Minister needs to introduce a three-year rent freeze. I have put this question to him time and again but he will not answer it. If I asked the Minister three years ago what, in his view, would be a success in terms of rent prices, would success have been when someone could rent a house in Donegal for €650? Rents in Donegal are now nearly €1,000. Average rents have gone up by €300 right across the board. Even those who were paying €2,000 are now paying €2,300 per month. That is €3,600 extra that a family has to find every year to pay the landlord. That is before-tax income of over €6,500 that they have to find. What is the measure? How far will the Minister allow rents to go before he recognises that, as he is being advised by his officials, the likely impact of this measure he is introducing is an increase in rents? This is the issue, as it is with the help-to-buy scheme. Mazars, and the Minister is correct on this point, did not say the help-to-buy scheme pushed up house prices. What Mazars said is "it facilitated higher prices". That is what the independent report says.

People who are desperate will obviously welcome a renter's tax credit, but what will that mean when the landlord keeps on pushing up prices? In Donegal, rents went up by 19% last year.

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