Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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I hear what Dr. Slaymaker is saying. The Government's decision, therefore, is to protect renters. Rents are at an all-time high. Rents have never been higher in the history of the State. To go after rents and tenants now would be a savage attack. It would drive more people into homelessness and increase evictions because of people's inability to pay. Why do that in the hope that investors would come in, when they can charge what they want anyway because they can do that for the first rent? I would be very keen that the Government would not abolish the rent pressure zones. In actual fact, they should be expanded. When one looks at current rents, the RPZ system does not go far enough.

I raised a question in the Chamber a number of weeks ago about the Government's strategy. I think it was the Central Bank that said we have seen the market rebound since 2015. Is that correct?