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

I thank Sinn Féin for giving me the opportunity to talk again about rent and housing. It is surely a problem in Kerry and especially in Killarney, where rents have gone from €700 and €800 a month to €1,200 and €1,500. People just cannot afford to pay such amounts. The real problem is that we do not have enough houses. It has to be remembered and acknowledged by the Minister of State that in many cases the Government is taking 50% because the landlords are taxed 50% when they go over a certain threshold. The Government should do something about that because landlords are exiting the sector and selling off their houses to private interests. They are getting out because with all that is involved they cannot comply. As dear as the rents are, they cannot make ends meet with the tax that they have to pay.

The HAP scheme is a disaster. It is purely a means of getting people off the housing list. More supply is the answer. Another problem is that local authorities are taking much too long to turn around the vacant houses. The tenant purchase scheme that was to assist us in doing that is no longer an option for many tenants because 80% that apply to buy out their houses are not qualifying. We have asked the Government often enough to do something about that but it has done nothing about it.

Another desperate thing that the Government is doing is taking people with three or four children off the housing list when their income exceeds €33,500.

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