Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The reality is that across the whole State, rents are rising all the time. The latest report from last week shows us that even in my counties of Leitrim and Sligo, rents are up again; they are up everywhere. People cannot afford to continue this and the only solution we can come up with that will solve this issue is to have a freeze on rents. The Minister says that would put people out of the market but people are already going out of the market because property prices are going so high. That is why they are going out of the market; it has nothing to do with rents or any of that. Yet, the Minister continues to say we do not have any solutions. Clearly the Minister has no solutions because none of the things he is doing are working. Every time we have come in here for the past four years, the Minister has been telling us he has a plan that will work and every time we come in here we debate houses getting more expensive to buy, rents getting more expensive and mortgages being less available to people. That is the reality for ordinary people out there.

The Minister mentioned the tenant in situscheme. I had a man come into my office this week who is suffering with cancer. He has been renting a house for eight years and he is on the housing assistance payment, HAP. The landlord has given him the notice to quit and he has to leave that house in February. However, the house is deemed as a three-bedroom house. It is a small house but because it is deemed as a three-bedroom house he is told that the council cannot buy it because he is overhoused for the size of the house.

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