Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have a brief opportunity to speak on this important Bill. I thank the Sinn Féin Party for bringing it to the House for debate. The Rent Certainty Bill will amend section 19 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 by repealing section 19(2)(b) of the Act and introducing section 19A to provide for the linking of rent reviews to the level of inflation as indicated in the consumer price index.

Throughout the last Dáil and the previous one, I advocated some kind of rent control as a public policy. I remember raising the issue one morning on the Order of Business and there were howls of anguish from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael at the mere mention of some kind of rent control. While people will argue that the Sinn Féin Bill will cause constitutional difficulties or that to advance to more stringent rent control as advocated by the previous two speakers would not be possible, it is possible. We know that rent regulation could have been introduced. In the House tonight is a former Minister from the previous Government who could have done that, as could her successor.

I am concerned about the spiralling cost of rent, particularly in Dublin and the regions around Dublin. As the Irish Independentjournalists Dearbhail McDonald and Paul Melia showed yesterday morning, in Dublin and in all the commuter regions around our great cities, rents are spiralling completely out of control. It is very striking that rents in Dublin are now higher than they were in 2007 and that nationally rents are 8.6% higher compared with the same time last year. Yet people's income has remained pretty static.

The recent NEC report to the Committee on Housing and Homelessness recommended rent regulation "through a mechanism for disciplined market-sensitive rent adjustment". That clearly can happen. The previous Minister seemed to feel he had gone towards rent certainty, but he had not; he just introduced a mechanism which, along with rent uplifts, gave some little assistance to existing tenants.

He did not address rent certainty at all. This Bill would do that at least. The former Minister, Deputy Kelly, buckled when the pressure came on from Fine Gael colleagues such as the Minister, Deputy Coveney. He buckled completely in the face of an onslaught from Fine Gael and the property interests that back up the two bigger parties in this House. We ended up without any kind of rent regulation. As a result, some 2,000 children are homeless tonight.

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