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

Who was it who said, "if you freeze rents to zero, that could mean an income or pension cut for another person or another person unable to pay the mortgage on that property"? Was it, "A", the Irish Property Owners Association, "B", Margaret Thatcher, "C", Micheál Martin or "D", Attila the Hun?

Who wants to be a millionaire? A lot of landlords. The answer to the question is "C". It was the Taoiseach yesterday putting an investment by a landlord ahead of the right of a tenant to a home. This is not a level playing field. There are huge power imbalances. When the Taoiseach says he is balancing rights, he is clearly coming down on the side of landlords and why would he not do so? That is the class represented by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and are there not enough of them in the ranks of their parliamentary parties?

The maximum rent increase had been set at 4% in the rent pressure zones. The Minister decided to change that so he scrapped the 4% and said the maximum increase would be the rate of inflation. He said this at precisely the time when the rate of inflation was beginning to take off on a gallop. It has increased for ten consecutive months - something that has not happened since 2007 - and stands at 2.8%, which is the highest rate since November 2011. In fact, it is conceivable that inflation will go above 4%, perhaps before the end of the year, so in an act of incredible incompetence, the Minister would have set the maximum rate at a higher rate than it was before in the middle of a rent crisis and the greatest housing crisis in the history of the State. This is unbelievable stuff from the Minister.

The Taoiseach rides in to defend the Minister and says "the inflation increase is only temporary; the European Central Bank says it is only temporary." It does but there are others who say that it may not be so temporary. For example, Deutsche Bank describes rising inflation as a global time bomb. Many other capable economists and commentators reckon that this may not be a temporary phenomenon. Time will tell but it is not the point. The point is that, at a bare minimum, and I will make a point about this in a moment, rents need to be frozen. We will support this Bill but in many respects, it does not go far enough. A one-year rent freeze is extremely weak from the Labour Party. Most-----

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