Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Bill. For the avoidance of any doubt and as most people know, I am a landlord, but that should preclude me from having the opportunity to contribute to debates on legislation.

A previous speaker mentioned that he has been inundated with calls from renters in Limerick who are worried about the future. Current renters in the city of Limerick, like those in County Westmeath, who are governed by existing or RPZ legislation will see no impact. They are protected. There is no change. There will be a 2% increase. Only if tenants choose to leave after six years can a landlord choose to increase rent. If tenants stay for ten years, there will be no difference. In fact, there will be greater protections. The 200,000 people who are currently renting in RPZs will see no difference. If anything, there will be enhanced protections. Let us be honest with people at the very beginning.

The vast majority of landlords are honest people who have bought a small number of properties to act as a form of pension fund. They want long-term leases and good tenants, and nobody is incentivising moving people on. Most tenants want to rent for a period in order that they can put together enough money to buy their own homes. We want a market that works.

The Government is bringing fairness, balance and stability to our housing market. The new framework strikes the right balance for existing tenants, and helps to protect them from sharp and unpredictable rent hikes and provides certainty in order to incentivise new landlords and developers to achieve a fair return and encourage continued investment in supply. The very basic principle of economics is supply and demand. Everybody understands that. If we do not have sufficient supply to meet the growing demand, we will not achieve the ultimate objective, which is to bring rents down to a more affordable level for all of our citizens.

We want to increase supply, and we have to incentivise people to come back into the rental market. This is something the Housing Agency recommended, in terms of modifying existing rent pressure zones. When we have debates in the Dáil, there is a serious contradiction on the part of people on the other side of the House who say that we need more housing and for houses to be built more quickly, but if they are in the wrong location in their constituencies they do not want those houses to be built. I can put my hand on my heart and say that in 21 years as a public representative, I never submitted a planning objection in respect of housing developments in my constituency, whether as a local councillor, a Minister of State or a Member of the Dáil. I do not think everybody on the other side of the House can say that.

We have to look at this in the round. The Minister, Deputy Browne, has made huge inroads since he was appointed, and this is one of the latest pieces in the jigsaw. There will be more. An additional €700 million has been secured for social and affordable housing.

There has also been the publication of the national planning framework to empower local authorities to zone more land. I hope the local authorities will not shirk their responsibilities because zoning more land will be central to unlocking further housing supply. Expanding the LDA's remit was passed at Cabinet yesterday. We have a Minister who is committed to increasing supply of social, affordable and private houses. Increasing supply to meet demand will ensure we rebalance the cost of rent for people who are renting and rebalance the cost of purchasing houses. This is something we can all agree on. We want to ensure a stable marketplace for the benefit of all of our citizens.

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