Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom an Bille seo a mholadh agus buíochas a ghabháil leis an Teachta Ó Broin as ucht é a chur faoi bhráid na Dála. This is an important Bill and I hope the Dáil will agree that it is a component in tackling the unparalleled housing and homelessness crisis prevalent in the State at this time.

If they do not agree to it tonight, or when we vote on it, I hope they will at some time in the future.

This is a very commonsensical Bill which seeks to provide greater protection for both tenants and landlords against volatility in the rental market by linking any increases or decreases in rental value with the CSO's consumer price index. Rents have risen by 10% across the State since this time last year and they continue to rise as the rent certainty measures introduced by the previous Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, last year have abjectly failed adequately to address the rental crisis. This has all been well documented. The Daft quarterly rental report last month showed that average rents across the State are now more than €1,000 per month, which is an increase of nearly 9%. The Private Residential Tenancies Board quarterly rent index released earlier this month shows that rents across the State are 8.6% higher in the first three months of the year than in the same period last year. Dublin has been particularly affected with average rental prices reaching just short of €1,100 at the end of March. This has had a major knock-on effect on growth in rents outside the capital as people move into north Leinster, including into my own constituency of Louth and east Meath where rents are soaring to sustainable levels. Both counties have seen the largest rent increases across the State. No category of rental property in County Louth has seen an increase of less than 10% while rents in Meath have risen even higher by almost 15%. These findings were backed up by another report of the Private Residential Tenancies Board which finds that both counties have seen the highest rent increases in the State.

As with other Members, my office deals with the human outworkings of this crisis every day. There are landlords who will not respond to requests for a viewing by those who would need HAP while adults live in overcrowded conditions because they cannot afford to rent. Some of them are in their mid-30s. Families have been given notice to vacate homes, cannot find other accommodation and are faced with homelessness. All of this is a direct by-product of the fact that it is now more expensive to rent a home in Dublin than it was during the boom in 2007.

We need solutions and, as legislators, we have a responsibility to find them. This Bill is a start. There is no logic to Fianna Fáil not supporting this Bill. Rent control provides certainty for both the landlord and the tenant and it is used in many other European Union member states as a practical solution to tackle out of control rent increases and decreases. The Bill would allow the same for citizens of the State, many of whom simply cannot afford to pay these rents. This has been compounded by the lack of social housing construction as well as a lack of affordable housing which has kept more people in the private rented sector. All of these issues must be resolved. This Bill is a positive step in that direction.

I appeal to all Members to support the Bill, in particular Fianna Fáil Members. The soldiers of destiny come here every day. They rail against something the Government has or has not done in line with popular opinion and then they vote with the Government or in its interests in the lobbies. It is an absurd position. Fianna Fáil Members are masters at playing this kind of politics and their new politics looks very like old politics to me. The Fianna Fáil Party is backing up Fine Gael in pursuit of a bad policy agenda which is actively creating greater stress and unfairness in the lives of citizens. Fianna Fáil cannot distance itself from that and say it is facilitating. It is as complicit in the decisions and failures of this Government as Fine Gael and the smattering of Independents propping it up.

Ba mhaith liom an Bille seo a mholadh os comhair na Dála. Iarraim ar achan Teachta ó gach pháirtí tacaíocht a thabhairt dó.

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