Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister said you cannot solve this problem in a week, in a month or overnight. Indeed you cannot, but his party has been propping up Fine Gael for seven years, and Fine Gael has been in government for 11 years. How long do you need to tackle this crisis? Not only is the Government failing renters, the Minister stands here and gaslights them, because none of those policies he outlined are working. That is why rents are rising, renters feel more insecure, we have rising levels of people from the private rental sector presenting as homeless and the private rental sector is shrinking. These are all the consequences of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael policies over a decade or more that are, unfortunately, now propped up.

What renters actually need is a Government that will cut rents and build genuinely affordable homes. It is interesting the Minister did not tell us how many genuinely affordable homes to rent or buy were delivered by the Government last year. It was less than 1,000, which is a quarter of what the Government promised and that in itself was nowhere near what is required.

The Government cannot blame time and it cannot blame the Opposition. The responsibility for the crisis in the rental sector and sky-high rents lies with the Government. My question is very simple. It is the same one the Minister did not answer the last time. What will the Government do now to help renters with skyrocketing rents?

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