Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The realities are these. We have waiting lists for social housing that are unbearable. I have dealt with people who have spent years on social housing waiting lists. I assume the Taoiseach has also met these people and families. As he brags about social housing delivery, he should be very aware that tens of thousands of people who languish on lists know the real story. He talked about downward pressure on rents; there is no downward pressure on rents. I have just given him the figures. There has been a 12% increase in new rents, the highest since the RTB started to report. There have been increases of 5% to 5.5% for existing rents. This is a runaway train.

I ask the Taoiseach to intervene in a real and substantive way. If he was really interested in giving young people, in particular, the breathing room to put together a deposit and have the chance and option to purchase their own home, or even to live decently in rental accommodation, that is the action he would take.

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