Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The people on whose behalf I am speaking are taxpayers. They have rental income and pay tax. As the Minister knows, these people collect money in rent, then pay more than 50% in tax, pay their mortgages, if they still have them on their properties, and maintain properties to a proper standard. That is 100% right, of course. I am fearful, however, that many of these people are departing from this activity. We can see the reason for that when we look at the Opposition benches. I refer to the language sometimes used about people who own and rent out property. Even within the Government, these people are spoken about in a derogatory way, as if they are doing something criminal.

Some of these people are accidental property owners. There are also people who have gone out of their way to buy property to rent it out. The Minister is not a foolish man, that is one thing that he is definitely not. He is intelligent enough to know that in today's market, it does not make financial sense for people to purchase property and start to rent it out. As I stated, those people will be giving more than 50% of the rents collected in tax. Then they have to maintain the property, rent it out and face all the associated difficulties and tribulations. Those people are not going to do that in the future. I am fearful that people selling property to get out of that business are selling into the private sector. That property is then no longer available for renting and that is making the crisis worse.

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