Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

If the Minister accepts all my positions, those reasons disappear. The Minister made a point about rent increases going right up to the RPZ caps but I said that there is no point in bringing in a measure such as this unless a rent freeze is also introduced. It is of little comfort for those who are paying an average of €1,713 per month in Dublin, or in excess of €2,000 in some cases, that their rent will only increase by 4% next year. They are already stretched. When one has an elastic band and one has taken it to the point where it is about to snap, telling the elastic band that it will be okay and that it will only be stretched a little further is no good because it will snap. That is what is happening in this regard. The system is broken and renters are the collateral damage. If a rent freeze was introduced, rents could not increase to the higher level.

The second argument that the Minister made related to students and those on low incomes but I addressed that point in my opening contribution. If this is a refundable tax credit, it means that they will also benefit from this measure. This can be designed in a way that allows those on low incomes who do not have a tax liability to benefit from the relief.

The Minister is correct that the relief was abolished but people can still avail of rent relief now. People will also be able to avail of rent relief next year and up until 2021 because of the retrospective nature of claiming reliefs going back four years. In 2018, the eight-year phasing out period was completed. Data for 2015 show that 135,000 renters benefited from rent relief while in 2009 and 2010, 200,000 renters benefited. The pressure on those 135,000 individuals four years ago or on those 200,000 renters ten years ago was far less than it is today. There is no comparison between the pressure on renters today and the pressure on them ten years ago but we provided rent relief ten years ago to 200,000 renters, even though the relief was being phased out. There was a justification at the time for abolishing the relief because it pushed up rental costs but that can be dealt with by the introduction of a rent freeze.

This should only be a temporary measure. We should not provide rent relief to renters per se. That should not be part of our tax code because it should not be necessary in a society with a functioning rental market. I do not want to get into party politics on this but the system is broken, for whatever reason. I could argue that it is because of Fine Gael or whatever but regardless of the cause, the system is broken when people are being asked to pay these rents. We have a duty and a responsibility to take some of the burden off them. There is a way of designing this that deals with the issue of rents reaching the upper cap, that is, by introducing a rent freeze. The argument made by the Minister about those on low incomes and students is addressed by the refundable nature of the relief.