Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)

I thank the Deputies for their contributions. First, I will deal with the relationship between the credits that are available for landlords and for renters. The landlord-related measure stood at €600 in 2024. At the same time, the rent tax credit stood at €1,000. The rent tax credit was not changed in this year’s budget, but in previous budgets it was doubled. In previous budgets, it has gone up by amounts of €200. In the budget before last, the rent tax credit was changed by an amount of €500. The landlord-related measure is going up in a preprogrammed way by €200. Where we are now at a point that both the rent tax credit and the landlord credit for 2026 will both stand at €1,000. As I said, the value and cost of the measure in relation to renters, at €350 million, is three times the amount of the measure that is in place regarding landlords. The reason the measure relating to landlords was brought forward by my predecessor was in an attempt, which I support, to try to retain smaller landlords within our rental sector and to stabilise and maintain the number of landlords who are providing the rental accommodation that is needed.

I go back to the argument I have made in this budget overall, which I have made in every budget I have done and election campaign I have been involved in, namely, the need to keep our public finances safe and not bring forward budgets that are so big they could create risks for our society and our people in the years ahead.

We have increased capital investment in our economy to €19 billion next year. When I started off doing debates in this room a number of years ago it was €3.7 billion, so it has gone up nearly fivefold during that period. If we were to meet all the different issues and needs that are there at the moment we would have brought forward a budget that would have been so big it would have created issues we would then need to respond to in the years ahead. I have seen what that can do to an economy and what it can do to the faith people have in the ability of politicians and of Government to make progress on issues that matter to them.

On the argument that has been made on the cap, again we are going to rehearse arguments we have had in the past but I still stand over the view I have advanced that if we were to bring forward a cap with regard to rent increases within our economy it would have really adverse effects on the willingness of new landlords to come into the sector and increase supply in the future. I am aware of other cities that have rent caps in place. I see debates continuing to rage in many of those cities regarding the affordability of rent and the availability of rental accommodation. I emphasise again that while I understand the real benefit a rent increase cap would bring to those who currently have rental accommodation, the huge risk is that over time it could mean even less rental accommodation is available, not to mention we do not encourage new landlords to come into the sector to provide additional rental accommodation. That is why we have the rent pressure zone in place, which is not a cap but aims to moderate the increase in rents that is possible within properties covered by the rent pressure zone.