Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I reject completely the Deputy's assertions. She is guilty of severely exaggerated commentary on the reform of the RPZs announced last week. The bottom line is that as a result of those reforms, renters will have stronger protections than ever before. All renters will be covered by RPZs. It will be interesting that the first item on the agenda of our RPZ reforms will be something that Sinn Féin will have no choice but to support. Despite all the bluster and hype, Sinn Féin TDs will go into the voting lobbies to support the very first measure of the reform package we announced last week.

It is interesting that Dr. Michael Byrne, who is a lecturer in political economy at the school of social policy, social work and social justice in UCD and who works with Threshold, has said the security of tenure measures announced last week are really significant. He said that, arguably, they are among the most robust protection for tenants in Europe. I am not saying that and no one on the Government side is saying it; it is someone has been involved in the area for quite some time. That is the case, because we have an effective end to no-fault evictions, where the landlord has four or more tenancies. New tenancies will now be guaranteed for six years. Tenancies with smaller landlords generally have a minimum duration of six years. With limited circumstances - more limited than before - smaller tenancies can end. I look forward to Sinn Féin either opposing those measures or surely having to vote for the additional protections we are going to bring forward. What will happen is that the contrast between the Sinn Féin hype and hyperbole, and what will happen when we put these legislative pieces through the House, will be a yawning gap. Surely Sinn Féin will have to vote for these additional protections.

The more fundamental point is that Sinn Féin has proposed a rent freeze for three years, which would damage supply. Overall, Sinn Féin's policy objective is to reduce the rental market. The party has an ideological hostility to the rental market and to the private market, more generally, in terms of construction. A freeze on rent increases would mean that no one could claim for maintenance costs or even the cost of inflation. Who is going to invest in new units with Sinn Féin's policy, because its solutions are simply wrong? Its whole proposition is incoherent.

The only way we can deal with the housing crisis is to dramatically increase supply. We have increased it from 2020 onwards to about 30,000 thousand units per year. Up to then, we had 20,000 per year. We want to get to 50,000 per year. We need public investment, which we are doing, as the State is the largest investor in the housing market at the moment, and we need substantial private sector investment. Sinn Féin has to acknowledge that. I know members of Sinn Féin have been out protesting and saying this is an emergency and so on. I agree; it is a crisis that we need to deal with as a society.

See this speech in context