Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)

There are a lot of things I could say about housing, but because of the announcement from Government I feel compelled to comment on the new rent proposals. The new restrictions, such as they are, or rather the changes, will mean there are no controls for new builds and no controls for new tenancies when tenants change. This is going to drive up already sky-high rents. This is really going to increase them further. They are going way beyond what ordinary people can afford.

Most tenancies end voluntarily. People move on. They get housed by a local authority, purchase a house, move to new rental accommodation or they have to go to a larger house because of family size. The other side of that is people downsizing, and then some people are just emigrating because they are giving up. When all those tenancies change over it is a free-for-all in terms of what landlords can do with the rents. The Daft report last year showed Laois had the fastest increase in rents outside Dublin. Those renting a house or apartment are being told by some there is a problem with profitability. Pull the other one. There is nobody who really believes that. The charging of rents of up to €3,000 within the Pale and over €2,000 outside the Pale means huge profits are being made. That is €36,000 per year in rent alone for a bog standard house. Families and workers who are on €400 to €700 per week simply cannot afford that. One week’s pay is completely wiped out.

There is a myth as well that the number of units is decreasing, but it has increased. Between 2016 and 2022 it went up by 45,000 and the evidence since, as I understand it, shows that as well. The commission report set out a need for reference rents, which the Government ignored. They would be based on location, family size – I raised it with commission members again today at the committee to clarify what they were saying – and the average rent in the area and it would be just index-linked increases. The energy rating would be counted as well. That at least was some kind of half-decent proposal. What we have instead is what has been set out by the Government today. What will happen is rents will be driven up way beyond what ordinary families can afford. There will not be no-fault evictions, but there will be so-called fault evictions because people will not be able to pay the rent. They will owe so much in rent landlords will be able to get them out. Once they are free that is another group of houses and flats where rents can be increased. This is a recipe for chaos for families and workers.

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