Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Of course supply is the issue and we need more houses. In the meantime, we cannot throw people out of the rented accommodation sector by virtue of unaffordable rents, which is what the Government is doing. The Government wants us to applaud the extension to 19 areas of a cap of 4% on increases in rent at a time when people’s wages are increasing by less than half of that. How can that be just? How can it be right? If we accept what the Minister said in terms of the supply having to come up to meet demand, we must have an interim proposal to hold people in affordable rent. That means having a cap on rent increases, as my party suggested, until the supply comes into balance. The cap should at least be linked to the increase in wages across the State. Does the Minister agree that a 4% annual increase in rent, which is twice the rate of the increase in wages, is a wrong policy and is contributing to homelessness?

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