Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are a few interesting points here. As the Minister is aware, I have a particular affinity with Berlin. I have a number of cousins who had hoped to move to Ireland in the coming months with their young families. They contacted me to say that they must not have been looking at the rental market correctly because they just could not find anything in Galway that they could afford in any way. I had to explain that when I said there was a housing crisis, I meant that it is as bad as it is in Galway. These are people who could work from home in IT jobs. They are now living in rent-protected accommodation in Berlin and have done so since they had their small children. They have never had an issue paying their rent because they have very good protections in Berlin. The Minister feels that as a result of the rent freeze in Berlin, there is more pressure on renters. I would turn that around and suggest to the Minister that if he looks at Berlin, which I have known my entire life, he will see that people there rent. It is not a place where people always buy. They rent in Berlin and they have always been able to do so. They have rented places for decades. The flat that my granny lived in, where my mother was raised, was always rented. There was never an issue about renting. All my cousins are renting and they continue to live in Berlin. They do not have to move outside to the surrounds. We can have a different point of view from that of the Minister. We believe there should be a rent freeze. There are the other things that Berlin has, like rent security that allows people to stay in their rented properties forever and they never feel the need to buy. I feel very strongly about that.

I spoke earlier about the pressures that people are under. I understand that the Minister sees those people in his clinics too and that he talks to them. However, myself and the woman who works with me in my local office are at our wits' end. Today we had a conversation about how to tell people coming to us that the council can do nothing because there are no rental properties and there is nowhere for people to go. That is a position that we have not seen ourselves in since I was elected. I am talking about the period since 2014. Things are getting worse. The Minister said previously that he felt that without a rent freeze, bringing in a tax credit would just add to the price of rent. The Minister says that he does not agree with a rent freeze. He believes that. We can differ, which is fair enough, but then what is the point in the tax credit? In the previous budget there was nothing for renters, so is this being done to make them feel like there is something for them? That is a genuine question. Is it for that reason that the Minister brought in the tax credit even though he feels in his heart of hearts, as he has told us before, that it will only increase rent?