Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes, I agree. We have proposed that for a long time but what came out the other side from the Government has been very disappointing. My time is limited so I do not want to dwell on the matter.

I cannot make sense of the interest relief for landlords because rents are higher than ever. Rent pressure zones have been mentioned. Let us consider County Mayo and Westport, which is a rent pressure zone. In the rest of that county, landlords can on any day of the week or month of the year, which they have done and I know of many such cases, say to tenants "I am increasing your rent by another €300, €400 or €500 a month". If tenants do not like it there is nothing they can do and there are no other properties to rent so it does not make sense to give the subsidy. I understand that the subsidy will cost €459 million, which is a lot of money. We are in a time of ever-increasing rents and rents have never been higher so why a subsidy? It has been claimed here that the subsidy will help change behaviour and stop people from selling their properties but where is the concrete evidence that shows that? I ask our guests to explain the matter.