Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Some of the policies which she has put forward such as banning and freezing would actually reduce supply, and would have a very negative impact on the rental market. That would mean higher prices again. I have to challenge that simplistic notion that we can simply ban everything for three years and that everything will then be the same, or will get better. If one bans anything for three years, people will get out of the market and do other things. We have seen that and have tried to clamp down on some of that with regard to Airbnb, and so forth, and to provide for planning permissions so as to try to keep a higher number of houses in the rental market, so that we can keep downward pressure on prices.

The way, I respectfully suggest, that Deputy Cairns is proposing that policy should be directed would actually reduce supply and increase prices even more.

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