Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone for their contributions. I have felt frustrated. The witnesses looked on everyone here as an enemy and spoke as if many of these Bills were designed to attack the Irish property owners and people renting. I do not see it that way. I do not necessarily agree with everything that is in these Bills. I would have problems with some areas. The way I see it we are trying to get a proper functioning system, whether social housing, private housing, people renting or otherwise. We are trying to get it into perspective. Supply has been constantly raised in the House and at committee meetings. We have constantly argued that the method and policies being pursued are not giving us enough supply. That is the key in many ways to keeping the rental market at a certain level.

Mr. O'Brien gave me an example from Dublin 9. The average rent there for a house is €1,800 or close to €2,000 per month. No one, including Mr. O'Brien, could tell me that is justifiable. I hear it constantly and I know many landlords. I am not for one minute anti-landlord because I know many decent landlords. No one can turn around and say we do not have a problem with people being put out of their homes for the sake of a sale. That is constantly raised in my constituency office. Many landlords are saying they are going to sell. Some of them are genuine and some are not. We all know that. We have to get a balance in dealing with this.

Refurbishment was mentioned. There has to be a case for very substantial refurbishments and if it is possible for the landlord to put the tenant somewhere else that is fine but that is not always the case. If there is a genuine argument that has to be considered.

The deposit is very difficult for many people in the private sector. Some people have got a deposit from their welfare officers and that worked in some cases. I know landlords who have not received rent payments for two to six months or even longer and that is not acceptable either. That has to be addressed.

The area needs to be strengthened for students. They should have the facility to go to the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB. I do not accept Mr. O'Brien's argument that they are in a different situation and cannot be tied into rent pressure zones. I disagree with the concept of rent pressure zones. I would prefer that we were tied to the consumer price index, CPI, across the board. There are rent pressure zones in some areas but not around the country. In Dublin the limit is 4% but every two years the landlord can add 4%. I do not buy that argument. It is wrong. Sometimes being tied to the CPI can work against a person, if inflation goes up but by and large it is a fairer system.

We are not making any dent in the housing list for all the measures that have been put in place. There is still massive homelessness. We do not seem to realise that the population is growing. The demand is growing and the amount of stock in the private sector is reducing. We must build more and create more supply. We should not underestimate that.

Obviously there cannot be anti-social behaviour or people in arrears. The council has a policy of moving against people being anti-social. The same should apply in the private sector. There has to be a mechanism to deal with serious anti-social behaviour or massive arrears. I do not think anyone disputes that.