Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I hope it really is good news. I am glad the rent limits are being reviewed. It could not have come a moment too soon. I ask the Minister to consider a random sample from daft.ie of rents in the south Dublin area. In the case of bedsits, there is not a single rental property in south Dublin that is available today under or on the cap the Minister is proposing.

This is causing havoc for people. I hope the Minister will take a lead from the local authorities in this regard. There seems to be an acknowledgement that, for example, while the rent cap for a couple with two children is €925, local authorities that are doing deals with landlords under RAS are actually agreeing to pay between €1,050 and €1,300 because they understand that the caps are utterly unrealistic.

Will the Minister in her review take into account the fact that deals are being done under the rent caps? This means she should not conclude that there are many properties available at rents lower than the caps. Just this week I heard about the case of a couple, Emma and Keith, whose two children live with their father, but the father is deemed not to exist in terms of accessing rent allowance so they are paying €1,200 in rent despite receiving rent allowance which is capped at just €950. They have to cobble together the rest out of their social welfare payments. In her review, the Minister needs to consider the fact that, in reality, a large number of people are being forced to cobble together money to pay rent which is far higher than the caps. That is not acceptable.

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