Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The housing Minister says he will introduce a package in the House next week to address the spiralling cost of rent. Reports yesterday pointed to splits between senior Ministers on the issue. Will the Taoiseach guarantee that we will see the package in 2016? Why has the housing Minister waited to put the package on the table in the week Deputies will head out the door for the Christmas break? Rents have increased year on year by nearly 12% throughout the State and nearly 15% in Cork city. In the Taoiseach's lifetime, has he ever witnessed more families homeless at Christmas? Kids are waiting for Santa Claus to come down the chimney in bed and breakfast accommodation or a hotel, some for the second year running.

According to the CSO, clear profits from rent on dwellings came to €1.6 billion in 2010 and rose to €2.7 billion by 2015, an increase of more than €1 billion. That is a large transfer of wealth from the many to the few, from people with no property to a comfortable or even wealthy minority. It is little wonder that the CEO of Ireland's largest corporate landlord operation, I-RES REIT, recently stated: "It's a great market. We've never seen rental increases like this in any jurisdiction that we're aware of."

The country is crying out for a Taoiseach who will say the people's pockets are more important than rent increases for landlords and that strict and stringent rent controls will be the order of the day. The country is crying out for a Taoiseach who will bang the table, turn calmly to landlords and tell them that they have bled the people for long enough and will not increase rents by one single penny more. The Taoiseach does not look like the man for the job. He is the leader of the landlord party. When he attends Fine Gael Parliamentary Party meetings, he must be practically tripping over all of the landlords present. His is the party of the capitalist market. The market is God and nothing must be done to offend the gods. We read in yesterday's edition of the The Irish Times: "Coveney's rental strategy faces resistance from within Fine Gael - Noonan and Donohoe among those opposed to interventions in the rental market". Will the Taoiseach confirm the date for the introduction of the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney's package on rents? Will he explain to the House the Government's failure to implement real rent controls?

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