Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 9:

In page 20, between lines 28 and 29, to insert the following: "Report on income tax relief

16.The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on an income tax relief equivalent in value to 8.3 per cent of annual rent to all private rental tenants not already in receipt of any State subsidy, examining the social and economic impact of this measure in the context of high levels of rent and other policy levers such as a ban on rent increases.".

This amendment deals with the issue of skyrocketing rents right across the State. This is no longer unique to our capital city or other cities where there is acute housing pressure; it is now felt in the most remote regions because of the lack of curtailment in respect of the escalating rents that so many individuals are facing. In our party we have raised this issue consistently with the Government. It has fallen on deaf ears. The Government has continued to take the side of landlords on this issue and has left renters at the mercy of ever-increasing prices. Ludicrously, legislation was passed through this House by the Government, including the Minister opposite who signed off on it at the Cabinet, that allowed rents to be pegged to inflation. This meant a rent increase of 5.1% could happen last month. That is the rate of inflation. It meant that the average Dublin city rent, which currently stands at €2,032 and with which the Minister will be more familiar than I am because he lives in Dublin city, was legally eligible to be increased by €104 per month, or €1,248 per year.

The penny has still not dropped with the Government because, after having been shamed and embarrassed into addressing the situation in which, owing to its incompetence, even Eoghan Murphy’s flawed rent pressure zone cap of 4% has been exceeded, it has pegged rents to inflation with new legislation. The cap is a maximum of 2%. When rents are sky high, you do not legislate to push them a little higher; what you do is look for faoiseamh, relief, for ordinary people right across the State. There are 300,000 people renting privately across the State. The amendment calls for a rental tax credit up to a maximum of €1,500, which is the equivalent of putting one month’s rent back into the renter’s pocket. It is about real relief for individuals. It will work only if we introduce a rent freeze over the same period.

I am conscious that we did have a rent tax credit. The Minister may try to suggest it is left field and that we could not do something like this here. A rent tax credit operated in this State up until 31 December 2017. It was recommended for abolition by the Commission on Taxation in 2009 because it was being absorbed into the rental prices that landlords were charging. That was why a rent freeze must accompany the credit. Before the credit was recommended for abolition — it was fully abolished only at the end of 2017 — a married couple, both aged 55 or over, were able to get a rent tax credit of €1,600, which is more than what we are suggesting in this amendment. Therefore, this is not left field; it is common sense. It is what a Government would do if it had the interest of tenants rather than the interest of landlords at heart.

I have mentioned the crazy price people are being charged in Dublin city: €2,032, possibly going up this month by €104, which is legally allowed owing to the incompetence of the Government. What is happening in other parts? Seventeen counties have had double-digit rent inflation under the Government at a time when rents were escalating anyway. Rents are soaring outside the Dublin area. They have increased by over 20% in Mayo. That is just mind-boggling. Put yourself in the shoes of a family who might be struggling with the cost of living. This year their rental bill is 20% more than it was last year. In Leitrim the increase is over 20% and in Roscommon it is 20%. What is the Government doing? It is legislating to require that rent can be put up by only 2% more. Putting up already-high rents is putting more pressure on affected families. The Government has completely and utterly failed to have the interests of renters at heart. It has continually taken the side of landlords. Our pleas, which we have made time and again, have fallen on deaf ears.

I do not know what rents will have to be charged, by landlords or institutional investors, which charge the highest rents in the State, before the Government realises there is a serious problem. Not only do we need to stop rent increases; we also need to give relief to renters. People who are younger than me, including those who are starting out in life and possibly thinking about starting a family, are asking how the hell it can be done in Dublin. What is happening is crazy.

The amendment would introduce what we used to have until it was finally phased out in 2017. It would do so in a way that works because we would introduce a rent freeze. This is what a Government should do. This is what I would do if I were sitting in the benches opposite because I know the choices I would make would put renters first, not landlords. The average rent in this city is over €2,000. The rent increases we are seeing in many counties, including mine, are in double digits and in some cases exceed 20% per annum.

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