Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is shocking to me to learn that the towns we have just discussed meet the criteria with regard to spiralling rent. The Minister of State says they do not meet the full criteria, however, because the rent in question is not already an outlier, as in being too high. In other words, the Government's mechanism is to wait until rent gets too high and then slow down the increase to 4%. It does not put the brake on it or stop it but it waits until it gets too high and then decides, perhaps, to slow it down somewhat.

I have mentioned the thousands of people who are already in massive crisis with regard to housing. There are thousands of other people living in houses today who are living in fear that their landlord will either increase the rent or decide to move them out of their home, thereby leaving them at the mercy of the market. That is exactly where the Government is leaving them. It is saying to them there are no brakes that it will apply to the rents in the towns of Navan, Kells, Athboy, Trim, Oldcastle and Enfield. It is extremely frustrating. Meath West is the home of the Minister of State with responsibility for housing, Deputy Damien English. We would have believed there would have been some leverage there with regard to making the changes. It is also the home of the Fianna Fáil Deputy, Shane Cassells, who abstained from voting on the legislation and, therefore, allowed for these Meath West towns to be excluded.

The point the Minister of State made was that the Minister is prevented from participating. He is not. He has a mandate from the people to fix this problem. He is not stopped by legislation because he can make sure it is changed. If the Minister decides to change it, he will have willing helpers on the Sinn Féin benches to make sure the rent is linked to the consumer price index or the rate of inflation, and make sure that normal families can go to sleep easily in the knowledge that next year's rent will also be affordable.

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