Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)

The Minister is determined to make this as confusing as possible. He is forcing out jargon and spin instead of solutions. He talks about RPZs, STRs and every acronym under the sun. Renters do not want that. They are looking for security, support and affordability. It is not rocket science. Unfortunately, the Government, specifically the Minister as the person with responsibility in this area, are turning it into rocket science. The Land League was established 200 years ago to protect and stand up for renters. We now have the likes of the Community Action Tenants' Union, CATU, on the front line standing up for renters because someone needs to stand up for them. That is what Sinn Féin, Raise the Roof and the Opposition are doing because this Government is not standing up for renters.

To give the Minister a feel of what it is like to be a renter today, a lady contacted me who is paying €1,500 rent per month. She has a 22-year-old daughter in her final year of college and a 16-year-old son in transition year who will be going into fifth year in September. She is terrified because she does not know when a rent increase or eviction notice will come. What a way for a mother, who has done everything right, to live her life. She does not qualify to get on the social housing list and is not entitled to HAP because she earns too much money. She works hard and got an education. Despite her doing everything right, the Minister and the Government have excluded her and put her under pressure. She lives in fear as a renter. It is a desperate situation for all renters. This lady is terrified of what will come down the road. Sinn Féin will propose amendments tonight that will ensure she does not receive a rent increase. The amendments would give her security and allow her to focus on her children, her job and on herself. Can she not be entitled to focus on herself and have some peace of mind? I am not sure whether the Minister and Ministers of State understand this fully. There are enough of them in the Government. Surely some of them understand what renters are going through. If they do not, why do they not reach out to renters to ask them? Whoever is providing the advice is giving the wrong advice for renters. This Government would sooner go to big pension funds, vulture funds and investment companies to get advice when it should be going to ordinary people and renters.

One section of the community is pitted against the other as a result of this. Some people feel that others are entitled to social housing and HAP and are receiving college education while they are working all the hours God sends. The failure in this regard lies at the Government’s feet. Its members are the people responsible.

I want to see people given an opportunity to have the best quality of life they can have. The Minister's so-called protections are a joke. The Government is not giving any security to college students, doctors, those getting an education or apprentices. When they get their qualifications, they will get that security by going to Cork, Shannon or Dublin airports and getting on a plane to America, Canada, New Zealand or Australia. There are 100,000 people in Australia who were born in Ireland. The Government has exported and sent these people out of our country as a consequence of all its different failures in housing, cost of living and looking after young people. For a young person, it is a choice between that or staying in the box bedroom of their parents’ home until they are 30 or 40 years old. I know a lad who worked in Leinster House for ten years and emigrated to Australia last year because he could not earn enough working in Leinster House to get a mortgage.

His future is in Australia. The night before he left he said, “My only hope of being able to buy a house in Ireland is if there is another crash or recession. Otherwise, I will never be home again”. That is what this Government is giving renters.

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