Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This Bill amends the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 by limiting rents to a maximum to a quarter of monthly household incomes. Sinn Féin supports the objective of this Bill and has proposed a number of different ways to achieve it. Over the last decade, average rents have more than doubled. In the last year alone, rents in Kildare have increased by almost 8%, and by a whopping 112% since the crash. I note the Minister who sat there before the Minister of State said he wanted to see affordable rents. I wonder where because they are certainly not affordable in Kildare. They have long since exceeded the bounds of affordability. The average rent in Kildare is now €1,565 a month.

The daft.ie report shows the average monthly mortgage payment is just half the average monthly rent.

The Government has chosen to subsidise private landlords through the HAP scheme instead of funding local authorities to build homes. It just does not make sense. Rental yields on one-bedroom apartments for landlords in County Kildare exceed 10%, yet the Government is rolling out the red carpet for international investment funds. It is tripping over itself to make things easier for its developer friends. What about using the same initiative to find real solutions for struggling workers and families? Sinn Féin in government will stand with those who are struggling. We will introduce a tax break that will put a month's rent back into renters' pockets. We will ban rent increases for three years and introduce legislation to prevent evictions into homelessness.

There is an epidemic of homelessness. I am helping a large number of people who have received notices to quit in recent months. The situation is only going to get worse. I am dealing with a young woman who is living with her six-month-old child in emergency accommodation above a pub. There is a couple with four children aged under eight living in a single bedroom in a relative's home. I know of a single woman in homeless accommodation in Carlow who lost her job because she had no way to get to work on time. An abused spouse and her child were sent from Kildare to a refuge in County Louth. There are countless single men with addiction and mental health issues who have been abandoned to Kerdiffstown House to keep them out of sight and out of mind.

Homes should be for need, not greed. A home is a place to live, not something from which a profit is squeezed. The current situation is a disgrace and it needs to change. The Government is a disgrace for doing nothing about it.

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