Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Ó Broin's proposals are fairly threadbare - let us be straight about it. In the Deputy's submission, he proposes to commission "the Housing Agency to undertake research into the disorderly exit of landlords". That is it. The other measure is a €400 tax. What we are doing is delivering 300,000 new homes between now and 2030, including private rental properties, and rolling out cost rental at scale, for which we already have cost-rental affordable tenants in place. Last week, more tenants moved into their homes in Kildare in what was the second tranche of cost rental provision. We will deliver more than 1,750 new cost-rental homes in 2022 and more in each subsequent year. That is what we intend to do.

We must also increase supply across the board. We produced a plan, Housing for All, that invests €4 billion in new housing while the Deputy's submission suggests a €2.8 billion investment from Sinn Féin. Let us be honest with people. All Deputy Ó Broin has been doing is demonising landlords and now he is bemoaning the effect that has had. We need a stable rental market as well as affordable homes for working people, and that is what this Government is about to deliver.

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