Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Right across the State, there are 700,000 people living in private rented accommodation. As a result of the housing crisis, the vast majority of them are under immense pressure. In the face of constant rent increases and an absence of supply, they are just about getting by. In truth, many of them are not getting by. Four families become homeless each day. Many more are on the brink. More again live with the constant fear, the constant worry and the constant stress of the prospect of another rent hike. The antics of Fine Gael, and its colleagues in Fianna Fáil, yesterday and today, just before Christmas of all times, has only added to this. Fine Gael has added to the stress and anxiety of those families. Fine Gael has done nothing to alleviate the fears of renters. Fine Gael acts, as ever, only in its own interests. That has been the hallmark of its term in office, one that has been characterised by cynicism, inaction and incompetence. We have had another fine example of that here this morning - Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil playing politics with the roofs over people's heads. Fine Gael calls it "new politics", but it looks like old politics to me. Whatever Fine Gael calls it, I will tell the Tánaiste this much: it is bad politics.

The reality is that struggling renters desperately need relief and certainty. The best and only way to achieve that is to link rent reviews to an index such as the consumer price index. That is not only Sinn Féin's view. It was the view of the cross-party Committee on Housing and Homelessness, including its Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil members. It is a position widely supported by tenancy advocacy organisations, homeless charities and housing policy experts. Instead of supporting hard-pressed tenants by supporting that position, Fine Gael and its friends in Fianna Fáil are now engaged in cynical political games. Despite knowing the detail of the plan brought forward by the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Coveney, long before it was launched, Fianna Fáil is now moving desperately to distance itself from that plan, and not out of any concern for renters. It seems that Fianna Fáil just wants to get one over on Fine Gael. The ill-conceived plan that the Government has come up with will heap greater pressure on renters. It will result in unsustainable rents getting further out of control. In simple terms, this means that there will be more homeless families. That is the reality.

The Government's intransigence is motivated, for Fine Gael's part, on a desire to get one over on its partners in Fianna Fáil. That is the real face of so-called new politics - Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil doing their own thing while hard-pressed renters and families are stuck in the middle. I appeal to the Tánaiste to take a step back from this charade and the nonsense surrounding it. I ask that the party-political games stop. I understand that the legislation is to be taken today. In that spirit, I ask everybody to accept Sinn Féin's amendment to link rent reviews to the consumer price index and to give tenants a real sense of security. If the Government does that today, we will support it because that is a real proposal to address the real crisis and would mark an end to the silly party-political games.

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