Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry to tell the Minister the ECB forecasted inflation would increase as economies opened so I do not think it came as a surprise to anyone. In fact, at the exact same time as he was planning to link rents to inflation, his own Minister for Finance was planning on indexing the tax bands on the basis inflation would rise, so he obviously saw it coming.

What about all those people who are not in rent pressure zones? I think in particular of those in our coastal areas. We saw during the course of the pandemic that the cost of properties across these areas increased massively. Just this week a woman come into my office who lives in a coastal area. She said her landlord is looking to increase her rent by 35%. I know very few people, indeed I do not think I know anybody, who has disposable income of 35% lying about that they can put towards the cost of their rent. What is being done for those people? Report after report has shown there are no rental properties available in Galway that fall within the housing assistance payment limits. Just this summer, a daft.iereport showed rents in Galway had risen by 9% and rents in the county rose by an extraordinary 14%. Linking rents to inflation at a time of rising inflation will only mean this will continue. Rents will rise and more and more people will be locked out of the housing market. Renters need rents to be frozen and they need a tax break to help them with the massive cost of renting. The Government has given a tax break to landlords; it should now give one to tenants.

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