Mr. Tom O'Brien:

-----in both Bills has been the subject of continual concern, discussion and telephone calls to our offices in the IPOA. There is absolute evidence of that and as we are closer to that than is the Deputy, we can speak on behalf of property owners in that regard.

The Deputy has mentioned his concern and discomfort at people crowding out his clinic as result of having been served with notices to quit. I do not understand how the Deputy believes it is private landlords' responsibility to sort out the homelessness crisis. The homelessness crisis is a State responsibility. It is not for the private sector to resolve that. Without the private sector, the homelessness crisis would be a lot worse. The private sector should receive some gratitude and acknowledgement for the important role that it plays. I stand by my comments on the Bill. The Bill does nothing to sort out the problem we are experiencing at the moment. If there was a serious intent to resolve the problem of housing, all parties would be coming forward with incentivisation measures. If one looks at the section 23 provisions, one would get laughed out of court if one mentioned reintroducing it. Without section 23, however, we would be devoid of thousands of apartments in Dublin, Galway, Limerick, Athlone and Cork and the housing crisis would be a hell of a lot worse than what it is now. The reintroduction of incentivisation and tax breaks is needed, as unpopular as they might be to members in reaching out to their electorate and support base, as soon as possible.

The last point I will make is about the following figures, which I have given and explained to the committee previously. Superprofits have been mentioned in the rental sector before and while I thought I had explained it the last time we met, to do so again, if one takes an apartment that is rented for €1,000 a month, this represents a gross rental of €12,000 a year. The tax take on that is €6,500 before one goes anywhere. The local property tax, LPT, due is €300, the service charge is €1,500 and general repairs come, on average, to about €1,000 a month. That leaves €3,000 to service one's mortgage. The figures do not stack up.