Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after “That” and substitute the following:

"Dáil Éireann, while recognising the pressures that tenants are under following rent increases and the need for a comprehensive response to these pressures and while acknowledging the Bill’s merits in the context of the broader debate on the rental market, declines to give the Bill a second reading for the following reasons:(a) it pre-empts the relevant commitments in the programme for Government and in the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, particularly in relation to the publication of a strategy for the rental sector by end 2016, in which the Government will be considering measures to provide greater rental predictability for landlords and tenants and to improve security of tenure for tenants;

(b) the measures in the Bill risk negatively impacting on existing and future supply of rental accommodation; and

(c) the Bill has potential legal and constitutional implications which require careful consideration.".

The tenor of the contributions that seem to suggest that we are not taking seriously the housing crisis or even recognising it is absolute rubbish. We have increased the housing budget for next year by 50% and we have spent €200 million this year buying properties through local authorities.

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