Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister does not deny the fact that if you are a landlord today, you will be better off next year as a result of the Finance Bill. You will get an extra bonus. Up until now, you would get €800. Next year, it will be €1,000. If you are a tenant today, you will get the same next year as you did this year. That is the reality. That is the fairness. The Minister also will not deny that if we look at the figures from the RTB for last year, we can see that the rent increase alone exceeds the amount of the tax credit. That is the reality. That is in relation to new tenancies, by the way. The amounts relating to existing tenancies are also going up significantly.

We had discussions about the rent pressure zones and how effective or ineffective they are. Does the Minister not acknowledge, and this is what the amendment seeks to deal with, that the annual increase imposed on renters in the past couple of years was massive? It amounts to thousands of euro. When we talk, therefore, about providing a tax credit of €1,000 to an individual when rents continue to increase, there is a hole in the bucket. That is the problem. This money is ending up in the pockets of landlords. That is why the Minister made the point that this is what would happen. That is why the Commission on Taxation made the point that it would happen. That is why the evidence was that in the absence of a cap, we will see increases in rents - this is because it is baked in - and that is exactly what is happening.

Whether he likes it or not, the Minister is overseeing runaway rents. That is very much the responsibility of the Minister and the Government. Without a cap, this measure will actually fuel that. Worse still, it suggests that the Minister is doing something for tenants when he is not. That is because this will end up being baked into rent costs and will increase costs for everybody. It needs to be done, and I argued for this rent credit for years. I made the argument for it year after year, but the Minister stood steadfast against it because he was only taking one part of it. However, a two-pronged approach was always required. The Minister was right to stand against it if we were only doing it without a cap. With a cap, it could be effective in terms of the prices tenants are being charged and, crucially, it would make sure money went into tenants’ pocket at a time of very high rents. Even if a cap had been introduced three years ago, rents were still far too high at that stage. That is without talking about the rents as they are today.