Dáil debates

Wednesday, 18 April 2018

12:15 pm

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

People are paying rents, like Tara Nic Chormaic, the nurse who wrote an open letter about how she cries at the end of a 39-hour week because she has €6 left after she pays her rent. That is how people are paying while others cannot even get these properties. I am proposing as an absolute minimum a complete rent freeze. A 4% increase on an unaffordable rent of €1,900 or €2,000 a month is not payable by people on HAP or by teachers, nurses and ordinary workers. What will the Taoiseach do about that? I would go further, as is the norm in many European countries, and have rents set by local authorities based on square metreage at affordable levels. What is the point in the Minister's proposed legislation given the RTB only has 55 staff and cannot even enforce the current legislation? The Taoiseach is saying they will launch investigations, which is just nonsense.

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