Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

Today's edition of The Irish Timesreports that the Government is considering reducing tax on rental income. Why on earth should people pay less tax on passive income than they pay on earned income? Why on earth should tenants pay a higher rate of tax on their income than landlords pay on their income? The justification for this is the idea that there is a flood of landlords leaving the market because they have such a hard time and so on. The evidence does not back that up. We have the highest rents on record. The total in private rent going to private landlords in 2022 was €4.7 billion. The 2016 figure was €3.1 billion. We know the private rental sector is getting bigger rather than smaller. The answer in terms of evictions is for the State to buy with tenants in situand to leave the tenants in place.

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