Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is a gross understatement to say it is inadequate. What the Minister is proposing is a pathetic drop in the ocean compared to the rents and rent increases people are enduring. There is an extraordinary contrast between the landlord's tax break the Minister has given and the renter's tax credit increase. According to the Minister’s tax policy changes book, he has given almost precisely twice as much to the landlords in this budget as to the renters: a €160 million tax break to landlords as against €88 million. That is the cost, the Minister says, of increasing the tax credit to €750.

How does the Minister justify giving twice as much to the landlords as to the renters? Does he not agree that it is pathetically inadequate given the rents people are enduring? In my area rents are between €2,500 and €3,000 per month, and you would be lucky to find somewhere for that. They are skyrocketing, and it is completely impossible. Our favoured option is that the Minister would reduce rents by capping them and setting them at affordable levels. That is something he has set his face against. However, if he is not going to do that he should surely be giving assistance that is more than a pathetic drop in the ocean, and substantially less than he is giving to the landlords.