Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)

This is a record-breaking Government for all the wrong reasons. Under Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Independents, there is record-breaking homelessness, as well as record-breaking house prices and rents. Rents, incredibly, have doubled since the bottom of the crash. This must be the most pro-cyclical Government in the history of the State. Deputy Micheál Martin was a member of a Cabinet that crashed this country. His actions led in part to a significant spike in house prices and rents in the noughties. His policies led to the crash, which gutted the value of people's homes. Incredibly, Deputy Martin, in partnership with Fine Gael, has pursued policies that have led to an eye-watering peak in rents and house prices. I cannot think of another minister in the world who was, in part, the author of two eye-watering housing inflation spikes and one devastating crash. The Government is in reverse in practically every single housing indicator in the country.

The housing crisis is damaging so much of Irish society. It is impoverishing renting families and making mortgage slaves of other families. It is damaging the economy because businesses cannot get workers and is driving wage inflation. It is damaging the mental and physical health of the many people who are homeless. Members of generation rent are forced to emigrate to Australia and Canada.

Incredibly, the housing crisis is also changing the very nature of the Irish family. The number of children families are having is collapsing at the moment because families are forced to delay having children because they cannot get a home. The Government is shredding the fabric of Irish society at the moment. It should be mortified and humiliated. It should be apologising to the Irish people but it is not. Instead, it is jacking up rents on hard-pressed families again. It is the objective of this Government's plan to increase rents for families. The idea that we have to increase rents to provide more is nonsense.

The plan also prioritises the rental sector over the house building sector, which provides people's homes. If the plan works, it will put families into competition with big international investors to buy up those scarce homes.

The idea is that the Government is looking to increase rents to increase the level of supply, but it could do that another way very simply. In the North of Ireland, there is no VAT on construction. If the Government were to zero rate VAT on construction in this country, it would increase the level of market activity and reduce the prices for families who want to buy homes. That would bring more builders into the sector and make it easier for people to buy homes instead of investing in Uisce Éireann. A representative of Uisce Éireann told me at a committee meeting that it will not be able to fill the gaps in water infrastructure that are stopping the building of houses before 2050. That was an incredible statement from Uisce Éireann

I raise the following subject because nobody else is raising it in the Dáil. Dan O'Brien recently published the number of visas that are being issued in this country versus the number of houses that are being built. In 2023, 80,000 residency visas were issued. We cannot keep issuing visas at such a level without affecting rents and prices. We must get to a situation whereby we reduce the number of non-essential visas being issued to ensure that we do not put the same pressure on house prices and rents in the future.

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