Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Despite what the Minister says, I am not certain that he truly understands the impact of his policies in real life and on real people. I am not certain that he has ever had to deal with a person facing uncertainty when he or she has been given a notice to quit. People will tell one that it is a landlords' market and that they are the vulnerable ones and do not want to speak up. They do not want to raise concerns about damp making their children cough and the living conditions in which they are forced to exist because they are in fear of their landlords. What the Minister has tonight is an opportunity to send a message to those people that he is not solely on the side of landlords and that he is on the side of renters and recognises that there is an emergency, that renters need a break and the need for this Government to take its foot off their neck and stand with them.

I commend Teachta Ó Broin on bringing forward this legislation because, as he has said, it is emergency legislation designed to deal with an emergency. However, I do not believe that the Minister understands that there is an emergency. I do not believe that this has got through to him. I do not think that he has seen the actual impact of the rental crisis. People are forced to bring their children up in substandard accommodation. No parent wants to do that but parents everywhere are being forced to live in damp and unsuitable accommodation for the simple reason that they know it is a landlords' market and that the Government will always be on the side of landlords ahead of renters.

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