Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The average monthly rent in Dublin is €1,400, or €350 per week. That level of rent is not sustainable and is way above what it should be. We see this across the board. We can talk about keeping people in their homes and increasing rent supplement, but the reality is that the rental market needs to handled in the proper way because it is has gone out of control. These rents are out of reach of the vast majority.

We need a root and branch review of the rental system. That is part of what we have proposed in some of the amendments. The German or Berlin model under which the rent charged by landlords is based on the size of a property - they charge per square meter - is the one to which we should be looking. There are 27 sq. m units in the inner city which could be called dog boxes for which the rent payable is €800 and €900. What is the justification for this? It is ridiculous. The average rent in my area of Finglas and Ballymum is €1,200 to €1,300.

I agree with the Minister of State that supply is a big issue, but there is a supply of properties available. I will give him an example. A total of 22 modular units are being built in Ballymun at a cost of €191,000 each, but it is possible to buy properties in the area for less than €120,000 and there are units for sale. We are missing opportunities. Nearby in Hampton Wood the owners have 30 units for sale which are cheaper than the cost of building modular housing and they have not been approached properly. It does not make sense.

There are options. The Minister of State and his party, in general, are opposed to rent controls or "rent certainty", as they like to call it. They believe in the private sector setting the rate. That is not working and people are paying through the nose to rent accommodation. We will have to examine this issue in the future because the Minister of State's method, whereby contracts will be increased over a two-year period while maintaining a certain rent level, will not work.

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