Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am merely saying the net effect of this is making a charade of the most critical issue facing this country and tens of thousands of people, and I fundamentally object. I have literally dragged myself out of my sick bed because I consider this so important. Really, we should not be dealing with this issue in this way.

However, I will have no choice but to move our amendment to the Government's amendment No. 54, our amendment No. 66 and amendment No. 2 to the Government's amendment No. 68 in this complex group of amendments. If anybody outside the House can follow that, they deserve a Nobel Prize.

These cover three critical issues. The first, obviously, is the 4% annual increase the Government is permitting in the designated rent pressure zones. Where do I begin? The Minister justified this when speaking on the radio by saying that a modest return was needed by landlords to incentivise them to stay in the market. Can the Minister honestly make that argument with a straight face when landlords are enjoying an absolute bonanza? Rents have gone through the roof. They are currently at unaffordable levels. Landlords are making a fortune. Statistics and figures show that the profits being made in the rental sector have jumped astronomically in the last number of years. The Minister seriously suggests that if we simply cap rents now and not let them increase any further, as we propose in our amendment to the Government's amendment, they will go running for the hills. The landlords are creaming it at present, so that is not a serious argument. When the public representatives of real estate investment trusts, REITs, are saying there is an unprecedented bonanza in the money being made from rental income in the areas we are discussing, is the Minister seriously suggesting they will go running for the hills? It is absolutely preposterous.

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