Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 3, between lines 13 and 14, to insert the following: “Amendment of section 19 of Principal Act

2. Section 19(4)(b) of the Principal Act is amended, in the definition of “relevant percentage”—

(a) in paragraph (a), by the substitution of “0 per cent” for “2 per cent”, and

(b) by the deletion of paragraph (b).”.

One of the great things about the truth is that it always comes out.

Over the coming months and into next year, the impact of the changes the Minister is making, not just here but in the coming months, will be plain for everybody to see. We warned when the Minister's predecessor, Simon Coveney, introduced the rent pressure zones that they would lead to a two-tier rental market, exclude large numbers of renters and create widespread difficulties for many and we were proven right. Interestingly, Simon Coveney made many of the same charges then that the Minister is making now. He was proven wrong. He ran screaming from the Department of housing but renters were left with the consequences of his actions. We will return to the debate over how this operates in real time in the coming months.

I want to speak specifically to the amendments. I am delighted the Minister referenced Dr. Michael Byrne from UCD because he is one of the most astute observers of the private rental sector. One of the central criticisms he has made in public and in writing of the Minister's proposals is that they would wipe out all of the affordability gains of the rent pressure zones since 2016. This is exactly what he has said. He has indeed welcomed some of the security-of-tenure provisions but he also says, in his article in the Irish Examinertoday, that what the Minister is doing on rents, which is what we are here to discuss today, will not only wipe out those affordability gains but will actively undermine the Minister's security-of-tenure measures. I agree with him. Therefore, I have no difficulty whatsoever quoting him on the floor of the Dáil.

I repeat that the Minister will wipe out all of the affordability gains that renters have secured. Why is this? It is because the majority of renters do not stay in their rental properties for more than six years. It is not simply a question of choosing to stay. Almost 5,000 notices of termination are issued quarterly. We still have a significant number of single property landlords availing of what was always their intention to cash in on their pension pot lump sum, which is entirely understandable when market prices were so high. The tenants of those properties will have to find somewhere else to live. That is the whole problem. The fact the average tenancy is less than four years means the churn in the 240,000 registered tenancies will have an impact that I am not even sure the Minister fully understands when the substantive proposals he will bring forward in the autumn come into force from 2026 onwards.

The Minister is right that the minority of renters who have very long-term tenancy arrangements will get the protections he has outlined but the more than 80% of renters who are not in that position will be badly damaged by what the Minister is doing. I do not say this to misrepresent or to scare. I say it because I understand the private rental sector, how it operates and how bad Government policy impacts on it. The only confusion that has been sown in recent weeks is on the Government side. This is not me saying this. I am sure the Minister or his advisers read all the Sunday newspapers That is the conclusion they reached and I agree with them.

With respect to the amendments, the problem is that right now rents are simply too high for existing and new renters. Let us look at the figures. The figures in the Residential Tenancies Board report for quarter 4 last year showed new rents averaging out State-wide at €1,680 and in Dublin at €2,477. State-wide new rents were up 5.5% last year. With regard to existing rents, including those renters allegedly protected by the rent pressure zones, State-wide average rents were €1,440 and in Dublin they were €1,865. Last year, average rents for existing renters, 83% of whom are in rent pressure zones, rose by 4.6%. Some of this is because of the exemptions in the RPZs but I have no doubt that a large volume of it is because of non-compliance.

Worse still, when daft.iepublished its quarter 1 report for this year, so this is more up-to-date information, average new rents throughout the State were €2,023. In Dublin city the average rent was €2,470. Many of us who represent large urban constituencies know that a new rental coming on the market today costs €3,000 or €3,500. This is even in the suburbs I represent, such as Clondalkin and Lucan.

What the Government should be doing in the first instance is preventing rent increases across the board for an emergency period. Renters simply cannot afford more rent increases. This is why amendment No. 1, and almost all of the other amendments I have in this group and others, seek to do several things. Amendment No. 1 seeks to amend the principal Act so that for a period of three years rents cannot be increased for all renters across the State. Meanwhile, all of the detailed, concrete proposals for addressing supply, which not only have I published but which I speak about on a regular basis, could be activated.

The fundamental flaw in the core argument on the Government side is that this is all about supply. What this misunderstands is that if it is the right kind of supply in the right place at the right price, it does not meet people's housing needs. It is not that anybody on this side of the House is against private sector investment but there is a particular category of private sector investor who is only interested in high-price, high-yield, high-density developments in expensive parts of Dublin and, possibly although not guaranteed, in the docklands of Cork, where rents will be set at a level even higher than now and will never come down. This rental stock will have no impact on renters everywhere else. It is not just about supply. It is the right kind of supply in the right place at the right price. This is something the Minister's predecessor did not understand, and it seems the Minister and his colleagues do not understand it today.

I make no apology for saying that a Government that stands up for renters should stop rent increases for an emergency period. This would not be indefinitely or in perpetuity but for an emergency period. It would create a breathing space for renters, alongside which a Government that was serious about tackling the supply and affordability issues would put in place the types of policies that I and others have set out in great detail. Sinn Féin's alternative housing plan, A Home Of Your Own, is still our housing plan and I still speak about it on a regular basis. The Government continues to ignore or fails to implement the overwhelming majority of the Housing Commission's proposals. Ultimately, this comes down to choices. The choice in the debate today is very simple. Does the Minister want a policy that will allow the rate of increase of rents for renters to accelerate at a greater pace this year, next year and the year after that or does he say enough is enough, renters cannot afford further rent increases and we have to stop it right now? That is what the amendments are about and I commend them to the House.

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