Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The latest daft.iereport makes sobering reading. It confirms what we on these benches have been saying for a long time. Rents in Dublin West are up 11%. A lone parent in our constituency contacted me this week to say a landlord had increased the rent well beyond the rent restrictions. How is that landlord doing it? The landlord is charging my constituent €400 for a parking spot that the landlord does not pay for. The tenant does not even own a car. A person in receipt of a housing assistance payment, HAP, who recently came out of homelessness is now terrified of going back into homelessness.

I have also been contacted by Clare, a young woman living with a disability, who expressed her concern and fear that she will never be able to live independently with ever-increasing rents. She has been on the housing list for years and is giving up hope in that regard as well. The Government's policy is failing to deliver anything but misery, fear, anxiety and anger. Does the Tánaiste agree that we need stronger legislation to ensure unscrupulous landlords cannot secure massive increases through the back door, a rent freeze to prevent rents increasing and to ease the pressure on those already renting by putting a month's rent back in the pockets of renters?

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