Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is a very important amendment. We fully support it and I would go so far as to say that I hope the Independent Senators push the amendment because if they do not, we will push it to a vote. When legislation is brought before us in these Houses, it is our chance to effect change. If we do not do that, we are not fulfilling the mandate we have as elected representatives to represent those people who raise issues with us. This is about the crux of rent certainty. We have heard much hand wringing about rent certainty. On Committee Stage, Fianna Fáil said that it expected amendments to come from Government around rent certainty but I do not see any Government amendment around rent certainty here. I maintain that it is an ideological issue and that Fine Gael is opposed to rent certainty. I do not know where Fianna Fáil stands on it because it says one thing and votes a different way so we need it to vote in favour of rent certainty in respect of this amendment. The ideology around rent certainty is Thatcherite-Reaganite free-market economics that says we cannot interfere with the market, which must be allowed to do its thing. It was very strange that when we were bailing out banks, we were able to intervene in the market. Free market and liberal policies were not allowed to play out in that scenario. We had to bail out the banks and we know how much that has cost us.

If the Minister of State was a car salesman, he would be asking us to buy a car that he will have in a few weeks' time. We do not know what colour, make or year it is and we do not know what we are going to be buying. A strategy such as a rental strategy does not necessarily have to be voted on in these Houses. We only have power regarding legislation so we can only effect change to legislation. A strategy is merely a strategy. A Minister and a Government can bring it in and we have very little control over what is or is not in it. I do not believe we will have the type of rent certainty Threshold and the Independent Senators have advocated for. I do not believe we will see it in the Minister's strategy. We do not want to buy a pig in a poke. If that is to be the situation, the Minister of State should tell us now and we can have a proper and decent vote on the amendment and know exactly where people stand.

This is the fourth time we have given Fianna Fáil the opportunity to get off the fence on this issue. We have seen a rent certainty Bill that was put through the Dáil in the summer. We brought the rent certainty Bill to the Seanad. We voted on rent certainty last week. Fianna Fáil hummed and hawed on it and now needs to get off the fence on the issue of rent certainty. If it is going to vote for rent certainty and tell people it is in favour of it, it needs to vote in favour of this amendment. That is the bottom line.

The rent certainty Bill we wanted to introduce would have linked rent reviews to the consumer price index, as is being called for here. It would have provided that stability that is needed in the private rental sector for landlords and tenants so that people could plan their finances. The situation I see in Galway is dire. In the past year, we have seen rent increases of 13% in the city. We have not seen a 13% increase in social welfare payments or wages. We have seen other costs of living going up. This is why something like rent certainty is crucial for the people I represent. Families facing rent reviews in the coming months might see their rent increase by between 10% to 20%. It is not out of the realms of possibility. We are seeing significant issues where vulture funds are coming in. I have been told that there is a new phenomenon when houses come on to the market. These guys in very slick suits come in. They are the people representing the vulture funds because they are buying up properties as investment properties. Many of those investment properties are being rented out at a very high price to people who can pay a lot more or are being used for something like Airbnb where there is a larger turnover and the return on investment is much higher. This all puts more pressure on tenants.

It also puts pressure on the Government and local authorities when it coming to paying rental accommodation scheme, RAS, payments or housing assistance payments, HAP. We might as well admit that even though there were meagre increases to HAP and RAS, they are nowhere near what the market rents are in most of the areas we are talking about. There are some scenarios where extra payments are made to keep people in their houses but in a general sense, RAS and HAP levels are under rental prices. We know that there are still situations where people have to top up those payments and pay landlords extra money to stay in their houses. They do not have any other choice to do that. It is not as if they have a free market so they can go out and find a house somewhere else. They cannot pitch landlords against each other. I spoke to some students during the week. When houses are being rented to students, there are queues of up to 60 or 70 people so the landlord can pick and choose whoever he or she wants.

This is what rent certainty would try to combat. I am really disappointed that both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil previously voted against these measures. I think it is an ideological issue. I will not argue with the Minister of State about it. Ideology and politics are what we do in these Houses. We believe in one way of running the country while the Minister of State believes in a different way. I believe he has a fundamental liberal marketeer attitude. Will he tell us straight out whether he believes rent certainty will be in the strategy because that is what we are voting on here tonight? He should not ask us to buy a pig in a poke or tell us it is coming in the future because this is where we are right now. It is a hugely important issue and I hope Fianna Fáil will come around and vote in favour of this amendment. I hope the Independent Senators will push this amendment because, if not, on a point of principle, we will push for a vote on it.

The issue around the private rented sector was not caused by tenants. It was caused by a failure of regulation, the banking crisis, vulture funds, etc., but tenants are the ones paying the price. All we are asking for is for Senators here tonight to take one very small step for those people in private rented accommodation and give them more security to let them plan for the coming years what their income will be and how much of an outlay they will have and know that it will only go up or down by a certain amount and within certain parameters. That is all we are asking for. The Minister of State needs to take this on board. It is already on board in countries like Sweden, Denmark, Germany and France. There is a form of rent certainty with the setting of differential rents. Rent certainty is more flexible in nature and allows for rent increases or decreases in line with inflation. I hope Senator Davitt, who has great experience in this area and property, in particular, would like more stability in the market rather than spikes up and down in the housing market so that he could plan better-----