Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy's point about those who are renting and wanting to leave the rental sector to buy a home is well made. Rents are too high in too many parts of the country. People cannot afford their rent and are making sacrifices just to meet the cost. They should not have to make those sacrifices. In addition, they are unable to find the space to save in order to purchase their first home. We have introduced schemes such as the help-to-buy scheme and the Rebuilding Ireland home loan to recognise that people are caught in a rent trap and to help them out of that trap and into home ownership.

We must ensure we have a rental sector that will protect those who will continue to rent and people coming to this country to rent. The sector must also have investment, not only from the State but also from the private sector. Further improvements are required to allow that to happen in a sustainable way. That is why rent controls are so important. I am talking about ensuring that people cannot make super profits off the backs of people who are struggling to find a place to live. At the same time, we must make sure there is an incentive for people to invest, become landlords and provide an important service in cities and towns. This is an area we have to keep an eye on.

We can take some hope from the fact that in the first two quarters of this year, as well as seeing landlords exiting the sector, we also saw new landlords entering the market. I understand there was no net change in the first two quarters but I will have to check that. As landlords exited, new landlords came in to the sector. I hope this points to progress.

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