Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Dutch have rent controls that are not dissimilar to the ones we put forward, which the Taoiseach’s Government rejected. It was claimed that our proposals were "illiterate" and "unworkable". Perhaps the Taoiseach should have asked Mark Rutte about how the rent controls work in the Netherlands. That country has a points system for the quality and size of a property. The majority of properties below a certain standard are subject to maximum rent caps. This means that the Netherlands does not have the exponential rental crisis we have that is immiserating so many people. The Taoiseach should know that our housing costs are 78% higher than the EU average. Our rents have jumped by more than 70% in the last ten years, while rents in the rest of Europe have only increased by 13% on average. This has been the case because the Dutch, the Germans and the Austrians have rent controls, and we could go on through that list. Therefore, the next time the Taoiseach is chatting to the Dutch Prime Minister, he should ask him how the rent controls work in the Netherlands and perhaps consider introducing something similar here

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