David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I refer the Minister to his response to the Opposition amendments Nos. 1, 2, 6 and 11 and Government amendment number 55, Opposition amendment No. 1 to Government amendment No. 68 and Opposition amendments Nos. 58, 60, 63 and 64. The Minister said, "This measure will give significant certainty to landlords and tenants by allowing for reasonable growth in rents". I do not know what the word "reasonable" means in the Minister's book. For the vast majority of tenants and families who have been subject to very high rent increases across the State in recent years, 4% each and every year for the next three years is far from reasonable. It is unreasonable. Worse, it is unsustainable. They cannot sustain it. I will not rehearse all the reasons for this or all the difficulties families face.

Deputy Coveney is a decent politician, a decent Minister and a decent person. However, he has the brass neck to also state that the measure will prevent "the instability and uncertainty caused by the volatility we have seen in recent years". Surely the Minister will take responsibility for the instability and uncertainty in the private rented sector and in the housing sector that he, his party and its policies created in the first instance. The reason we have volatility, instability and uncertainty is, first and foremost, that his Government failed to build public housing. This has forced tens of thousands of people, for whom the State should provide roofs over their heads as part of a public housing strategy, into the private rented sector. They are competing with those who are in a position to rent and who want to rent. This is one of the primary drivers of rent increases in recent years. It is not an accident, it is by design. It is by Government policy that we have instability and uncertainty. Before and after the election, the Minister and his party had to be dragged kicking and screaming even to accept that we had a problem, that the State had to intervene in the market and even that there was a housing emergency.

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