Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank those who have come in and presented to us. I know from talking to landlords in my constituency that issues around the registration with the RTB have caused a huge amount of stress and distress, and have certainly been cited to me as a reason for people exiting, as well as failures around the RTB in terms of enforcement and so forth.

I am constantly meeting younger people in my constituency in their 20s and 30s who are living at home with their parents and who want to be out of their parents’ home and want to be renting privately or be able to buy. They are saying to me that they feel the only option they have because the situation is so tight and so fraught is to consider emigration. That is potentially a huge amount of skills that we are going to lose, so we are in a very serious situation. I agree with other speakers that the lack of building of social housing, cost rental and affordable purchase over the years is one of the factors that is putting the private rented sector under extreme pressure.

I have several questions for Dr. Byrne. It is fair to say he has been a very strong advocate of making improvements in the private rented sector over the years and in terms of cost rental. If I understand him right, he is saying that a legitimate goal of housing policy for the Government would be to slow down the growth of the private rented sector or even stop the growth in the private rented sector. Can he expand on that?