Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend my colleague, an Teachta Doherty, on his work on this matter and on tabling the motion so that we can have this important debate.

There have been five hikes in the past seven months, with another on the way. That is more than many families are able to take. Under pressure from Sinn Féin, the Government moved to provide a modicum of relief for renters. This was an acknowledgement that, to fund the cost of keeping roofs over people's heads while they also dealt with other pressures, the Government needed to intervene. It did not go as far as we would have liked but it recognised the importance of intervening. That is why this time-bound and targeted measure is needed for those struggling under the weight of repeated interest rate hikes while the cost of everything else is increasing.

I dealt with a family in my advice clinic two weeks ago. They did not come to me to speak about mortgage interest relief. In a funny way, though, the meeting was about that. They were paying for private therapies for their disabled son. By right, those therapies should have been provided by the State but it was not doing so. Their son was on multiple waiting lists, so his family saw the need to pay privately for the services their little boy should have been getting. They can no longer afford them, though, so they made an appointment to see me to discuss therapies. They have to cut back. They cannot sustain repeated increases in the simple cost of keeping a roof over their heads. The Minister described mortgage interest relief as "a very important support for families". It is, but families have cut back on everything. They did not need the advice from the Minister's colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, to shop around.

They were already doing that. They have cut back on everything. While all of their other bills are going up, they now find themselves having to juggle and to make the very hard choices about whether they can continue to fund private therapies for their kids and pay their mortgages. Nobody wants to get into debt or arrears with their mortgage. We all know what can happen to families when that happens and the distress it brings. Now is the time for the Minister to intervene to support these families. This is a targeted temporary measure that families desperately need.

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