Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I want final clarity on this. Tenants who live in apartments in Cherry Orchard were given notice that their rent will increase by 10% in January. This does not mean they have had negotiations, but they have been given notice the rent will increase. It is not exactly a des res area but the rent is increasing by 10%. Will the Minister clarify for me whether the law will cover this and stop it from increasing by 10%?

This morning, the Minister misrepresented me when he stated that yesterday I asked him why rent controls. I did not. I asked him why now. I carefully went through the Constitution and the last four years of the record of this and the previous Government of sitting on their hands and doing nothing while they watched rents soar. I asked him why rent controls now and not why rent controls.

What we want is real rent controls at zero. We want to bring them back to the levels that workers' pay was brought back to, which is 2011 levels. This is what is needed in the city to deal with the housing crisis, as well as what is actually happening in the city, whereby ordinary decent citizens are taking over NAMA buildings as we speak, hence the T-shirt I am wearing which states "home sweet home". Happy Christmas everybody, and fair play to the people who are taking direct action and doing something this and previous Governments have failed to do, which is bring NAMA into its proper use, which is for social value. If we did this we could liberate thousands of homes and buildings to deal with homelessness and the housing crisis. We have utterly failed because we favour developers and bankers and we are not looking after our citizens.

Fair play to the people who are occupying the NAMA building, which was previously owned by a very famous French bank but has gone into the ownership of the State. They are doing a hell of lot more to house the homeless this Christmas than the Bill but we are here speaking about it forever.

I ask the Minister to correct what I asked him yesterday, which was why now and not why, and to clarify the question.

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