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

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the chance to speak on the motion. Standardised average new rents in Dublin have increased by €4,716 per annum and State-wide by €3,816 since the Government was formed. Across north County Dublin, these increases have been replicated, with monthly rents increasing from €1,762 per month to €2,158 per month since the Government was elected. According to the daft.ie rent report, that is an annual increase of €4,752 per year. These figures are even worse when calculated using the RTB rent index. Since Fine Gael came into power in 2011, average rents in north County Dublin have gone up from €980 per month to €2,158, again according to the daft.ierent report. That is a 120% increase in the average monthly rent in north County Dublin in 12 years. Are wages going up to the same extent? You can bet that they are not.

However, not only has the cost of renting exploded under this Government but the available housing stock to rent has collapsed. Today, there are 355 properties on daft.iefor long-term rent in north County Dublin, that is, 355 properties to rent in a local authority area of 330,506 people. This situation is atrocious and despite what the Government says, it is only getting worse.

I see it day in, day out in my offices in Swords and Balbriggan and when I meet people right across north County Dublin. The only solution is to immediately introduce an emergency three-year ban on rent increases for existing and new tenancies, put a full month’s rent back in every private renter’s pocket and increase the supply of affordable properties to rent and buy. There are days when I come home from having spent the day in my office, listening to people who are at the business end of this housing crisis, and it breaks my heart to hear what people have to go through. I had a woman in my constituency office who lives in Rush. She was given a notice to quit. She had been in emergency accommodation for two and a half years but she found somewhere to live. She sobbed her heart out at the thought of having to go back into emergency accommodation with her two children. As she said to me:

I have checked and checked. I have sent hundreds of emails. I have made so many phone calls. We do not even get a look-in.

That is on the Minister's watch.

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