Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It has never been more difficult to be a renter. Rents are through the roof, and last year almost 20,000 eviction notices were issued to tenants. The single biggest cause of homelessness, as I am sure the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform knows, is evictions from the private rental sector. According to the Residential Tenancies Board, the average cost of a new rental is now €20,000 per year. It is €26,000 in some parts of the city and as much as €36,000 in others. New rents increased by almost 5% in the past 12 months and existing rents by 6%. Even in rent pressure zones, RPZs, rents are increasing by more than the 2% cap. In almost all of our cities - Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford - rents for existing renters rose by between 4% and 5% last year. Since 2020, under the watch of the Minister and his colleagues, rents have increased by an astonishing 40% and their renter's tax credit has been swallowed up by rent increases for landlords. All the while, the Government's failure to meet its social, affordable and private-for-purchase targets means many people who do not want to be in the private rental sector are trapped there in insecure and expensive accommodation.

During the election campaign, Fine Gael promised to retain RPZs. In its manifesto, the Minister's party stated that it would review the effectiveness of RPZs. There is no mention in the programme for Government of ending the caps. On Sunday, however, Micheál Martin suggested just that. He said that the Government is considering replacing RPZs when they expire at the end of this year. His comments read like the speaking notes of an industry lobbyist for institutional investors. The more important point is that they caused real concern among renters.

I have been inundated with emails and telephone calls. One women told me: "The rule at the current rate of 2% is the only thing between myself and my daughter and homelessness." This woman is 70. She works to pay the rent. Her daughter has special needs. She lives in my constituency and pays rent in of €1,477 per month. Ending RPZs or allowing landlords to reset rents between tenancies would mean she would face rent of €2,700. Another constituent told me he never knows when his landlord might end his tenancy but at least with RPZs he knows what his rent will be year on year. A third renter told me that ending RPZs "is going to drive up rents and make thousands of people homeless".

One very distressed tenant wrote to the Taoiseach. He copied me and others on his communication, which states: "If you honestly cared about renters, you would not be considering how to benefit private investors, but how to benefit renters."

I cannot stress enough the impact the Taoiseach's comments have had on renters. Any renters reading the front page of the Irish Daily Mail today would be even more concerned because apparently the Taoiseach told members of the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party that they should brace themselves for unpopular decisions. It seems that the partial row-back by the Taoiseach in Brussels yesterday was about as misleading as his claim that 40,000 new homes would be delivered last year.

Will the Minister provide some comfort to renters who are genuinely concerned about the Government's intentions and make clear that it will not break its election promises? Will he give a commitment not to take any action that results in renters having to pay even higher extortionate rents?

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