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

The Minister's office will be bombarded with people who come daily to my clinic because they cannot access the HAP scheme. I will send the Minister the cases. I guarantee him that. Many of the people would love to be in my shoes today facing down the Minister because they are so angry with their housing situation.

I will return to the issue of rent controls briefly. I will take, for example, a soft balloon that one might find when cleaning up the day following a party. If, when messing with it, one were to block the air on one side of it, all the air would go into the other side of it and make it burst. This is exactly what is happening the areas outside the rent pressure zones. I have spoken in the House about bus workers before. They do not earn a huge amount of money. I know of a bus worker who lives just outside Navan and has been told by his landlord that his rent is going from €800 a month to €1,500 in one fell swoop. He cannot afford to stay there. Who could? Certainly not an average worker. This is happening around all the rent zones. The Minister's rent control is not working. What is needed is a review that will take rents back down to 2011 levels. Dublin is becoming more expensive than London to live in. This cannot be maintained.

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