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

I move amendment No. 7:

In page 15, between lines 17 and 18, to insert the following: “Renters Tax Credit

12.Within 3 months of the passing of this Act, the Minister shall lay a report before the Dáil on whether a regime of rent controls would be a more effective way to support renters than a renters tax credit.”.

To move things along, I did not intervene in the previous discussion but, in a way, we are covering similar territory here. In this amendment, we suggest that rather than introducing a renter's tax credit of €500, the Minister would look at whether it would be more effective to deal with the crisis of unaffordable rents by examining a serious system of rent controls that seek to make rents affordable. It is self-evident that a €500 tax credit, which only some renters will be able to get, is just piddling. It is a fairly pathetic drop in the ocean compared to the situation renters face.

In the past year, rents in Dublin have gone from an average of €2,000 per month to €2,200 per month. That is an increase of €200 per month or €2,400 per year. In my area of Dún Laoghaire, average rents last year were €2,200. They are now €2,400 and rising. Against that background, to offer people a €500 tax credit is worse than a joke because those rents are utterly unsustainable. On average, €24,000 in after-tax income was required last year to pay the average rent and the figure is now up to €26,000.

This is just insanity. It is not sustainable. The €500 tax credit just goes straight into the pockets of landlords and does not leave renters in any better position whatsoever.

As I did on Committee Stage, I wish to humanise this issue. I had several people in here today for Leaders' Questions from Tathony House, Rathmines Road and St. Helen's Court, all of whom are facing mass evictions from multi-unit complexes at the hands of landlords. There were also individuals facing eviction. All of them are in this dire situation. All of them are working families, people with jobs, but they just cannot afford this. They are in a hopeless situation because they are being evicted on the grounds of sale, which the Minister allows. They cannot afford these rents. I am talking here about people who have reasonable jobs.

I will give one example, that of a couple, Jacqueline and her husband. He works for the ESB. They are being evicted from the house they have lived in for 55 years by the landlord on grounds of sale. She, her husband and her two children are absolutely terrified because there is nothing for them. Their earnings are just enough to place them above the income threshold in this regard, and even the new increased income thresholds, I think. Given their age, they went to the bank and asked if there was any chance they could borrow and get a mortgage to buy their house, now it was for sale. There was no chance. Jacqueline and her husband are in their mid-to-late 50s, so the bank would only give them a mortgage for seven years. Purchasing the house, therefore, was not a runner. Equally, they could not possibly afford to pay €1,200 or €1300 a month in rent. What are they to do? Seriously. Jacqueline was crying in the Gallery today. She was crying at the protest, along with her daughters. They are terrified. What are they to do? If the Minister can give me an answer, I will be happy. I will be happy if I can give an answer to Jacqueline, and to the other families, as to what they are to do to avoid ending up - and this is the vision Jacqueline has - of sitting in a car, along with the family, on the side of the road at Christmas because there is nowhere to go. Jacqueline is not even entitled to emergency accommodation if she is made homeless because her income is above the threshold. What do we do?

One thing we could do would be to reduce rents and bring them down to affordable levels. What was the point in having, even if the supply of housing is increased, as the Minister often says, places being rented out at these prices? All the housing being built now is going to be rented out at these rents. What is the point of building stuff like this? Who can afford it? Nobody can. The only people who will be able to afford this housing, to buy it, will be the vulture and investment funds that will come in and charge these levels of rent. These are the only parties who can afford to buy the places being built, or very rich people.

I am, therefore, genuinely asking the Minister, if he does not agree with or think our solution is viable, which is to bring in rent controls and ensure nobody has to pay more than 25% of their income in rent, to please tell me what people in a situation like the one I described are supposed to do. There are no answers to this question now. There is not even the prospect of there being answers being offered by the Government to these sorts of dilemmas. If I am missing something, then I ask the Minister to let me know what it is and I will relay this information to the people terrified they are going to be on the street because they cannot afford these rents.

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