Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Certainty of tenure and a fair rent are two core principles of Fianna Fáil. By the Senator's own admission, this is a simple Bill. We feel it is too simplistic and that this type of interference could cause more harm to an already chaotic rental market. The main factor in the increase in rents is lack of supply. Introducing a blunt cap at this stage is not the way forward. I recognise that there is a comprehensive social housing programme and I firmly believe that this is the proper mechanism by means of which to deal with this issue and tackle rising rents.

Since the 2015 legislation was enacted, a market cap has been in place and it will remain so four years. Senator Coffey was part of the Government that introduced that legislation, which has been quite helpful to tenants. The Sinn Féin housing policy aims to facilitate the building of 100,000 houses in 14 years. Sinn Féin wants builders to provide 20% social and affordable housing, a measure introduced by Fianna Fáil. Sinn Féin wants to set interest rates. It talks about lowering them and it wants to manipulate the interest rate market and tell banks what they can and cannot charge. It wants to abolish the local property tax, introduce rent regulation and cap rents. It also wants to heavily increase taxes on companies - something we have heard on several occasions - and increase taxes on builders. All these measures are not incentives to build more houses. We must be practical. These measures will not help us build more houses. This is "la-la" economics and would leave us with a massive housing crisis akin to the one that Sinn Féin, as the largest party in Dublin, has overseen. Its hand is on the wheel here in Dublin. We have talked about it. Senator McDowell talked about landbanks in the city centre that could be used to build houses.