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

There is a discrepancy between existing and new tenancies but we have addressed that with an annual rent register that will come into force next year and through new powers and inspectors for the RTB. Cases are already under way. We changed the qualifying criteria for rent pressure zones and more than 65% of rental properties in the State now come under rent control. We have extended rent controls for two more years.

We now have cost rental on site. The first project will deliver rents at €1,200 for a two-bedroom apartment. It is a pathfinder project. We want cost rental to account for at least 20% of the rental market but that cannot be achieved overnight. Given the finances involved, we need to get this right the first time because if it fails, it will not be repeated on other sites.

We have incentives like the help-to-buy scheme and the Rebuilding Ireland home loan precisely to help people out of the rent traps that they are in. We recognise that rents are too high, unsustainably so. Rent controls are working to drive down rent inflation without affecting supply. Fundamentally, all of this comes back to making sure that new homes are being built to buy and to rent. We are helping those who want to buy out of the rent trap, recognising that rents are too high. That is what we are doing now and that is why we cannot support this Bill. Rent freezes sound good to someone who is renting but all of the evidence tells us that a freeze will damage supply, as is happening in Berlin right now after this measure was tried there. We also know the Bill is unconstitutional, as Fianna Fáil would have seen immediately if its members had bothered to read it.

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