Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputies will know from figures for the last quarter that rent increases were approximately 1.1%. It is the view of the Residential Tenancies Board, as opposed to my view, that rent increases are slowing. The Sinn Féin policy would effectively place a cap on rent because inflation is virtually zero. While that would certainly protect many people who are currently renting from rent increases, it would also freeze out of the market new people, including young people, those looking for properties for the first time and people moving to this country, because it would reduce the number of people who are willing to enter the buy-to-let market and rent out their properties. The Sinn Féin policy would, therefore, make a bad situation worse.

Evictions are very much a matter for the courts, which are very sympathetic to individual family circumstances. It would be useful to look at the percentage of people in family homelessness who were evicted as it is by no means the majority. We intend to amend the law to strengthen the protections for people with families who face eviction. We will do so on foot of proposals made by the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Moran. We will strengthen the hand of the courts in respect of evictions by empowering them not to evict families into homelessness. However, one must bear in mind that there are circumstance in which people who can pay the rent do not do so. These are individual cases, which is the reason cases of this nature are dealt with in the courts, as they should be because the courts are generally sympathetic. The percentage of evictions in Ireland compared with other countries is relatively low because our courts take a very sympathetic view of families.