Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Housing is a ticking time bomb. Is it a ticking time bomb that will blow up this Government? Daft has stated this morning that we have just witnessed the largest quarterly increases in rent since the middle of 2018. In Cork city, rents have increased by 6.3% in the first quarter of 2021 in comparison to the first quarter of last year. The average rent is €1,483. In County Cork there has been an incredible 8.7% increase, bringing average rents to €1,137. In the Munster area, there has been an 8.8% increase, with just 238 properties available to rent.

These rent increases have taken place at a time when there was meant to be a national rent freeze. The mind boggles as to what rent increases we might see now that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Government have decided to take the handbrake off and to end the blanket ban on rent increases, while ending the blanket ban on evictions while they are at it .

The figures detailing housing availability in the Munster area point to the need for a massive programme of social housing building. In the Dáil this week, the Government talked up its public housebuilding credentials somewhat, but it measured it against the very low figures of recent years, when it needs to be measured against the scale of the existing housing need. Those rent increases show that the Government is failing in that regard.

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