Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

On 26 February 2014, almost three years ago, I participated in a protest. Nothing surprising there. The protest was in Dublin city and on the placards was written, "RENT CONTROLS NOW." That was almost three years ago and it has been no secret to anyone that we needed rent controls in Dublin and many other locations.

The occasion for that protest was the effective eviction of a woman called Gwen Connell, who had received a 40% rent increase and was made homeless through inability to pay, with her children being dispersed. She was one of the people who brought attention to the rocketing rents, but that was not the first case I ever dealt with. The point is that it has taken the Government and the Labour Party this long to act. We are delighted to see the Labour Party amendments but, when it was in government, it set its face against rent controls or any interference in the market.

What the Minister has introduced is not rent control. I want to pick up where the previous speaker left off because I, too, have a question. Effectively, the two-year lease the former Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, introduced in the term of the previous Government seems to have been abolished because the Minister, Deputy Coveney, is making provision that annual rent increases will be limited to a maximum of 4%, as he said earlier in his speech. The previous speaker is right that it is not that people who are now due a rent increase will just get a 4% rent increase in January but that they could get an 8% increase. The other point is that people have been saying it is 12% over three years but it is not because the rate is compounded, so it is a lot more than 12%.

Another bit of news is that 90% of nurses in the INMO have just voted for industrial action related to pay. This is the reason - it is one of the many reasons. The Government expects workers to continue with the austere regime while rents and the cost of keeping a roof over their heads have been rocketing.

The Minister originally proposed this would apply to Dublin and Cork only and landlords would be allowed to put up rents by 4%, which is four points ahead of the consumer price index. Inflation is actually below zero, so there is no justification for these rent increases. That Fianna Fáil is accepting 4% speaks volumes about the type of so-called Opposition party it is. It is just another wing of the Government. Fianna Fáil will have a chance tonight because there will definitely be votes put and there is a whole range of amendments on this issue. We will certainly be pressing a vote on the issue of a 0% increase in these rent emergency zones, which is in line with inflation.

It would seem the only argument between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael has been what areas should be included or not included. The Minister said he is asking the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, to consider including counties Meath, Louth, Kildare and Wicklow, cities like Galway and areas contiguous to Cork city. He spoke about the end of February. We have a real problem but what is the Minister going to do about it? He has alerted landlords in all of those areas that there is a study going on about limiting their rent increases to 4%. What does the Minister think they are going to do in the interim? This has to be answered.

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