Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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I wish to ask Ms Carroll about the massive increase in the private rented sector to which reference has been made. According to the figures of the RTB and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, there were 282,918 rented properties at the end of 2013 and, without boring everybody with all the figures, basically by 2015 that number had increased dramatically and there now are 324,000 tenancies registered with 705,000 tenants. One must register just how big a sector this now is - so much for our love of home ownership - but how does Ms Carroll account for this increase? Is it because landlords are registering whereas they did not bother to so do previously? Alternatively, is it because, far from this flexible workforce that loves renting - a matter at which Ms Carroll hinted - there is actually no social housing and public house building has virtually ground to a halt? I agree with comments made and do not welcome this. Will Ms Carroll speak about what rights have tenants in Ireland compared with tenants in other countries? Can she provide some examples of security of tenure in Ireland compared with the position in other countries in Europe because this committee needs to hear about it?

As for another point to which Ms Carroll referred, members hear constantly that landlords will fly out of the rented sector if anything is done to inhibit them such as rent controls or anything like that. While such claims are made daily on the radio, despite the mild rent certainty measures that were brought in such as the two-year lease - which was not really rent certainty - there has been a major increase in the number of landlords in the sector. Does Ms Carroll agree this is all spoofing and there is plenty of money to be made in the private rented sector? As for the changing nature of landlords, Ms Carroll stated in her submission that more than 80% of landlords own only one or two properties, whereas the PRTB's annual report gave a figure of 84%. Does this mean the percentage has fallen by 4% or is the profile of landlords changing because of the entry into the market of real estate investment trusts, REITs, for example? What does the RTB think about such landlords and how they treat their tenants? For example, one of the biggest REITs is the Irish Residential Properties, I-RES, REIT, which has increased the number of homes it owns from 1,500 apartments in Dublin to a current figure of more than 2,000. Technically, it is the biggest landlord in the country. Over the past year, it has increased its average rents by 9.1% from €1,250 per month to €1,370 per month and the rent is much higher in some cases. Tenants of this REIT now are shelling out €172 per month more from their own pockets than was the case a few years ago. That equates to €2,200 taken from their pockets per year. I raise this issue because some political parties in the Dáil have welcomed these REITs into the country. The evidence appears strong to me that their introduction has had an influence on rents increasing in Ireland because if they increase rents, other smaller landlords will follow suit. Members heard terms like "vulture lover" earlier and I will not go there again.