Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply but he sidestepped my question to some extent in that he blamed the problem of rising rents on supply. There is a plentiful supply of houses in County Laois where I live, given the number of properties lying vacant despite being value for money. The same applies in south County Kildare. I remind the Minister that rents did not collapse during the property boom when we were building 90,000 houses per year. In fact, they increased.

The flood of people becoming homeless has turned into a torrent. Many are being squeezed out. Rents have increased by more than 35% since the Government entered office. The Labour Party Minister reduced the threshold-----

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