Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)

The House should note for the second time tonight that the Minister has studiously avoided the question. What do we know about tenancies? The Residential Tenancies Board tells us that the average length of a tenancy is three and a half years long. In the past 12 months, 70,000 fresh first-time tenancies were created. That is 28% of the total number of private rental tenancies. If those trends continue - trends that have been in train for a number of years - then within four years, the overwhelming majority of renters will be captured by this legislation. Many tens of thousands of them will have their rents reset to market rent at the start and all of them will have the market rent reset at the end of six years. I accept there is a viability problem. I accept there is a lack of investment, particularly in social, cost-rental and affordable for purchase homes. However, renters should not be the ones to pay the bill. What the Minister is proposing, in addition to inadequate and possibly illegal apartment design standards for smaller and darker apartments and huge VAT reductions for developers who are building apartments that are already viable, is to essentially allow landlords to reset the rent to almost double what it is for many tenants. He has not even done an analysis. Why not and why is he making renters pay for viability challenges the Minister and his failing housing policy created in the first place?

See this speech in context