Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I did not interrupt Deputy Cullinane. He might have the manners to stay quiet if it is possible for him to do that. I would appreciate that.

The reason we have this problem is that the demand for housing exceeds the supply. I agree with Deputy Catherine Murphy that rents have increased exponentially in the areas we represent. Indeed, in some cases they are not rent but extortion being extracted from families who cannot afford to pay.

In County Louth the subsidies given to people in the form of housing assistance payment, HAP, are the third highest in the country, even higher than they are in County Kildare. I refer specifically to Drogheda and its environs, Stamullen, Julianstown and Laytown, which are the places mentioned in the HAP analysis of the M1-M4 zoning outside of Dublin. Therefore, it is a hugely important issue. An examination of rent increases since 2015 shows they have increased significantly in Drogheda. Comparing Drogheda and Dublin, rents increased by 12.45% in Dublin since 2015 while they increased in Drogheda by 18.63% in that period, according to the Private Residential Tenancies Board website. Rents in County Louth have increased by more than they have in Dublin city. I welcome the Minister's commitment in regard to County Louth.

I received a letter from a constituent whose family is living in a property and the two years applying to their current rent level will expire in 2017. Their rent is €800 per month but the rent for other apartments that become vacant in the complex this family is living in is 63.5% higher than their rent. They would pay €1,300 if their rent was allowed to be increased unless it is capped as the Minister proposed. His proposed cap on rents, and I agree there are arguments on both sides, will mean that if it is extended to Drogheda, the rent for that family will not be anything like the landlord's current extortionate demands from families who are in this very difficult position. I welcome what the Minister is proposing.

I also want to address rents in Dublin. I do not live here but many people from my town live and work there. I am talking about young people in particular. We have not spoken about young single people working in this city. They may not have families, and three or four young men or women may share an apartment, but their rents are also extortionate. I know a person whose rent has increased by 35% and the four young people who share that apartment space have to leave Dublin because, on their wages, they can no longer afford to live in Dublin. They will move out of the city. That is a serious problem for young people with talent on lower wages.

The more rents increase, the less attractive our economy will be to workers to come to live and work in our cities. People have spoken about extending the 4% cap on rent increases to the whole country. I agree with the Minister that this must be rational and based on evidence. There is no problem with the evidence in the areas we are talking about. The greatest demand is where there is least supply.

On that point, I believe Dublin has been treated badly by its local authorities. More than 800 houses were offered by the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, to local authorities in Dublin, but they did not take them. Across the country, NAMA offered 4,000 houses to local authorities which they did not take. I have grave concerns about the credibility of local authorities to explain that fact because they cannot. I seriously question their commitment to the building programme.

One has to consider the impact of Airbnb on the rental market in Dublin. I know of four people being kicked out of an apartment. Their landlord - a friend of theirs until he made his kind announcement to them that he wanted them out - is living in the apartment too. He wanted them out because he was going Airbnb from which he would get 62% more income for the very same rooms he was renting out previously. We need to ensure we tackle the issue of Airbnb in exceptional cases, particularly in our cities. I understand the Minister will have some comments on that later.

I welcome the Minister's announcement on the tax working group. I do not know what the pluses and minuses will be but it will release properties into the market. There are 36,000 empty homes in Dublin city alone while, according to the last census, there are 196,000 empty homes in the country. These are not specifically holiday homes. We do not have the data as to how long they have been vacant. However, from January, owners will be required to register with local authorities if they are vacant for terms of registration purposes. Will the tax working group examine penalties for people who have empty homes for two years or more? In England, local authorities have the powers, should they wish to use them, to double the property tax on a property empty for two years or more. While incentives to let and to lease for landlords act as a carrot, we also need a stick to ensure there is an empty homes tax on properties which remain empty for significant periods of time. I do not believe any Member will disagree with that.

I welcome the reforms and the investment the Government has made into house construction. However, they will not be there tomorrow. Notwithstanding the great efforts being made to produce more homes for many families, they will not be there next year or the year after. If we can get into the marketplace the homes that are empty tonight, the hundreds of thousands of bedrooms that nobody is using this very night, then it would release a significant number of homes and help families and individuals who need them. The immediate release of these homes into the marketplace would also increase supply. That would have the effect of driving down rents. The more properties available, the lower the rents will be.

It is wrong to say all landlords are bad. I know they are not. We have all received letters from them and we all know people well who may have a home they got when their parents passed on or whatever.

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