Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue and for sharing some of the stories and experiences he has put on the record of the House. To be very clear once again, absolutely everyone on this side of the House, including everyone in government, accepts that we have a deep crisis when it comes to housing. We have seen a big increase in our population and we have an economy that is growing very fast. New households are being formed every day and we have not been able to build enough new homes and apartments to keep up with that increasing demand over the past ten years. We acknowledge that has led to a very deep social crisis that is affecting our country as well as a very deep personal crisis for many people. We see it manifest in lots of different ways, including very high rents that people have to pay and younger people - and not just younger people - struggling to buy their first home. We see it in homelessness now rising again. We also see it, as the Deputy outlined, in some of the difficulties the public sector, including the health service and the education system, and private companies are having in recruiting and retaining staff, particularly in Dublin and our cities, but not exclusively there.

There has been some real progress, and it would be unfair not to acknowledge it. We anticipate that this year we will build approximately 28,000 new homes. That is more than any year in maybe ten years, and that does not include derelict homes being brought back into use or student accommodation. That is the kind of figure we expect we will achieve this year. It is not enough but it is more new homes than in any year in the past ten. In the past 12 months, 16,000 first-time buyers - they are not just statistics; they are people, couples, families - bought their own home. That is more than any year in the past 15. ONe would have to go back to 2005, 2006 or 2007 before seeing that many people buying their first home. That is progress but I acknowledge that it is not enough. It is nowhere near enough, and we need to do much better to turn the corner on housing in the months and years ahead. We are introducing the rent tax credit. That will be available for people to claim in the next couple of weeks, I believe. It is something the Deputy and his party advocated for a long time. We have agreed to do that. It is worth €1,000 per renter, provided he or she is paying income tax. For two people, a couple, renting a house, that is €2,000. In a lot of cases that will be a month's rent back into people's pockets. Three people renting a house or an apartment will get €3,000 between the three of them, and, therefore, in a lot of cases it will be a month's rent back into people's pockets - sometimes more, sometimes less. That is something we are doing and people will see that money in the period ahead.

When it comes to nurses specifically, we have a pay agreement with the public service that will pay increases for nurses and other public servants over the next year. We have the rent tax credit I mentioned and the new form of cost-rental housing, whereby the Government provides rental housing at a below-market cost. That can make a big difference too.

When it comes to a rent freeze, we have rent pressure zones, as the Deputy will be aware. The figures from daft.ie, for example, and the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, show that for people who are established tenants and who have somewhere to rent already, rents went up by approximately 2.5% last year. The real problem is the new tenancies, that is, new properties coming to the market. A rent freeze would not affect them because they are being let for the first time. There are just not enough of them, and that is why the price of them is too high. The solution has to be mostly about supply, although not all about supply. We have to do everything possible to increase supply over the coming months and years and to stem the exodus of small landlords from the market, which is a big part of the problem as well.

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