Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

In the real world, rent controls and rent caps do not lead to a decrease in supply. That exists in the world of neoliberal economists who simply look at supply and demand charts, but that is not how it happens. Landlords act as landlords as long as they can make an amount of money which can be made, including with rent controls.

Rising rents are a key factor in the homelessness crisis. According to Mr. Mike Allen, 52 persons were made homeless in January as a result of rising rents. Threshold has repeatedly identified rising rents as the key factor in driving homelessness.

On the question of an increase in supply, I agree that we need an increase in supply of housing in the housing market. What the Minister stated repeatedly earlier, that this is the biggest house building programme in the State, is not true when measured by houses, which is surely the only way one can measure it. In the strategy for 35,000 additional social units, 11,000 plus units are leased, that is, rented from private landlords, and almost 2,500 are refurbished voids, which leaves approximately 22,500 which will be built or bought, a rate of under 4,000 units per year. That is not the biggest house building programme in the State. It is a small housing building programme when compared to those in the 1970s and 1980s, when there were 6,000, 7,000 or 8,000 homes built in a year, or at earlier stages. That is not enough, neither is the failure to move on rent controls to deal with these crises.

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