Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I want to bring the House's attention to a PRTB rent index study published today, which shows that rents nationally are rising by about 5.8%, but in Dublin they are rising by about 10%.Just in case anybody believes this is a Dublin problem, a more recent survey, by Daft.ie, shows that while rents rose in Dublin by almost 15%, they rose in Cork by 7.9%, in Galway by 7.2% and in Limerick by 6.4%. Many of the counties surrounding Dublin are also experiencing very significant rent increases. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government has indicated his willingness and intention to introduce a model of rent certainty, in other words, a model that will limit the extent of rent increases in the rental sector. We already know that people are losing their homes because they cannot afford to pay rent increases. We are now seeing a new category of people, namely, the one third of those in the market who believed they would be buying their own homes but who, because of Central Bank rules, now face renting for a very long time to come and may never have the option of moving into their own homes. May we have the Minister in the House to talk about the future of rented housing? This is a very important debate that we need to have. Some 20% of the nation are living in the rental sector and have little or no security. They are subjected to very significant rent increases. I would like to expand the debate to talk about the future of home ownership. Historically, Ireland has had a very high level of home ownership, but it has dropped dramatically. We have Generation Rent but possibly Generation Lost, a generation for whom the option of home ownership may be lost for the entirely of their lives. We need a broad debate on housing and home ownership and to focus specifically on a strategy for rented housing.