Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Yes, we will take six minutes each.

In regard to yesterday's budget announcement, there are three areas on which I would like to focus. I referred in my contribution last night to the housing issue. I would like to return to that issue. One of the measures introduced will inflame the problem in this area. One of the areas not mentioned to any degree is the rental sector, which is out of control at this stage. There is no other way to describe it. Last week, during Leaders' Questions with the Tánaiste, I described the type of bidding wars going on in my area in relation to property renting. One woman told me of a case involving a modest three bedroom house in respect of which the rent was advertised to be €1,300 per month. She left when the bid reached €1,800.

Listening to the radio, I heard a man describe how his landlord sought a €400 rent hike, bringing the rent for his two-bedroom apartment up to €1,800 per month. Families come to my office every day to say their landlords have hiked up their rents. They have no choice but to sign further leases, which is completely unsustainable. It is a choice between doing that and homelessness. In many cases, people are agreeing to unsustainable rents. In December, the current so-called "rent certainty measures" are due to expire but there was no indication yesterday as to whether they will be extended. As that will affect HAP and rent assistance, it is a budgetary matter. There was also no mention as to whether the measures would be improved, which is what is actually needed. Rental has become the sole housing option for people and families across all demographics. It is no longer an interim measure or a student issue. Families find themselves for many reasons reliant on the private rented sector. If we are going to stem and, indeed, reverse the crisis in the sector, we need to adopt a different mindset. We must see rental as a valid housing choice not just in the short term but as a longer-term measure. There has to be some vision into how we do that. It has to be a sustainable choice not something that is at the whim of the market when there is a shortage as we are seeing now.

The policy on under 26 year olds who find themselves unemployed is ageist. Of those on the live register, 16% are young people under 26 years of age. There are 12,000 young people among the long-term unemployed. Given that this is a means-tested payment, there is a huge cohort who are not even counted as they do not qualify to go on the live register. That problem was actually widened by yesterday's decision.

There is a lack of ambition in the transport area. Indeed, we saw yesterday the announcement of Luas cross-city. For goodness sake, were we going to cancel it? Does the Government not see the holes in the streets all over town? To announce and announce again the same projects in the budget is nonsense. We need to see where the ambition will be. Congestion is one of the most significant issues in terms of competitiveness. Indeed, it is part of the reason DART and the first round of Luas were funded by the European Union. They were seen as measures that would deal with congestion, which was making Dublin very uncompetitive. Here we go again donkey's years later, but we have not seen things like DART underground, which would actually be a game-changer. We need to see that kind of ambition being stated. The problem with the budget is that it is short-term, lazy and bitty and fails to set out a strategic vision. As such, transport is one of the biggest disappointments in the budget.

See this speech in context