Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It was a terrible attempt to try to deal with the fact that more than 100,000 individuals are on the housing waiting list.

What analysis has the Minister done to determine how this measure will address the crisis? It will not put another brick on a site, a slab of mortar in between bricks or build any homes. Given that there is a supply-side problem, not only in social housing but also in private rental accommodation, how will this amendment alleviate that pressure? What are the estimated costs to taxpayers of this additional relief for private landlords? How many individuals does the Minister believe will avail of this tax break? What will be the cost to the State?

The Government has done some type of analysis on this relief. The Minister has information on those who are already in receipt of payments from local authorities or payments to support their housing needs, in terms of how many individuals and landlords will benefit from the measure and the total amount involved.

I asked the Minister to address the question of landlords with multiple units, such as apartment blocks with five apartments or old houses that have been split up into five units. The cost of refurbishment may be €5 million, yet under this measure only two of the apartments may be let to recipients of social housing. Can the Minister outline how the overall loan will be subdivided? How will we know that the refurbishment was done in flat 2B instead of 2A, which is rented by a private individual?

I ask the Minister to refer in particular to the cost of the measure, the number of individuals he expects to avail of it and how he expects it to deal in any way with the supply-side problem. What effect will it have on private renters in the market? We know about the Minister's other half-baked - it is a better term - attempts to deal with rent controls. Figures fromwww.daft.ieshow that rents increased by 3.2% in the last quarter because of the mess the Government made of the rent control issue.

That is the biggest increase in any quarter since early 2007. This is the incompetence of the Government. Letters are being sent to renters to state rents are increasing dramatically, in some cases by more than 50%, because of the Government's half-baked attempts. The question is whether this has been really thought out. Has the Government done a proper analysis of it? What impact will it have on other areas of the market?

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