Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

First, I will declare that for many decades I have been involved in the rental market. That puts me in a good position to talk about this very important subject.

I welcome the debate, but some of its content will not help to solve the problem. What we have heard from an awful lot of the Deputies to the right is the demonisation of people who have properties they rent out. They are doing nothing wrong. The majority of people who own property are highly respectable, and this is a highly regulated sector. They pay mortgages on properties and they rent out those properties. Of course there are foreign investors who set themselves up not to pay tax. The one fact that is forgotten about, however, which I have not heard anybody to my right-hand side acknowledge, is that if the majority of people who rent out property bring in €1,000 in rent, €520 of that goes to the Government. I would like to hear that discussed today but it is not spoken about. Less than half the rental income is left to buy property, insure and maintain it and pay to fulfil all the necessary obligations.

While I would be delighted if the State could provide the accommodation that is required, not only this Government but successive Governments have failed to do so. There is a place for the private rental market. Of course it has to be regulated. Of course we want to see affordable rents that people can live with. It is wrong that people would have to rent forever. If people can get on the property ladder at some stage, that is the ideal scenario and that is what we all wish to see happen. Again, however, if a landlord outside the Chamber were to hear a lot of what has been said here today, all it would do is add to the 26,000 landlords who have already left the private rental market and sold their properties, which are no longer available to rent. That is making the problem worse and worse.

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