Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to add to the remarks of my colleague, Senator Colm Burke. Many Senators have raised the concerns over increasing rents but one has to look at this in the context of the overall property and construction market, which has now been dysfunctional for some time. I heard Sinn Féin representing landlords last year as multimillionaires. Some of them may be millionaires but many of them are colleagues of ours, and probably colleagues of Sinn Féin Members. They include teachers, doctors and nurses who did not intend to become landlords in the longer term but who bought into the property market when prices were high and subsequently rented. When the crash came, they found themselves in serious difficulty with their mortgages and in terms of maintaining their properties to the required standard. There is the added difficulty of negative equity. In recent years there were lower rents because the rental sector crashed in addition to the property sector.

As the economy recovers, we will see a recovery in the rental income on some properties. People are rightly talking about the increases but are they actually talking about sustainability in the rental sector? If the sector is not sustainable, people will exit. The last thing we want before construction returns to any normal level is the smaller landlords exiting the property sector. If they do so, the houses will go up for sale and will be bought, with the result that the tenants we all want to assist will have a considerable challenge in finding an alternative property. While the intention of the amendment might be positive and good, there are concerns that if we interfere with the market, landlords will exit. Subsequently, that will have an impact on tenants.

There is existing legislation allowing that if somebody increases the rent, he can do so only at the current market rate. If he goes beyond that, there is a right of appeal for tenants through the Residential Tenancies Board. The rent is retained at the lower level until there is a final independent determination. On top of this, there are also measures for tenancy sustainment where people are under pressure. Some people mentioned the housing assistance payment and other Government initiatives. If there is a particular case where the housing assistance subsidy is not high enough, there is a facility for increasing it on a case-by-case basis. That has been done in thousands of cases around the country. It is not true to say that tenants are being left in the lurch. The Government is doing all in its power, with the levers available to it, until the property sector normalises.

The Government has had an independent analysis of the property sector that took into account rent certainty. This constitutes independent advice. If we interfered with the market, we could seriously run the risk of having a lot of landlords exit, with the unintended consequence that tenants would be without a home.

I am voicing concerns on behalf of people who are our neighbours and friends, and they are landlords. We need to be very careful in any interventions we are making. I welcome the fact that the Minister of State has outlined that a new rental strategy will be announced in the coming weeks. I believe there will be measures in the strategy to enhance tenancy sustainment. That should be supported. I, for one, am prepared to await the new strategy. We should all get behind it to try to help those who are in difficulty. There is a challenge and, until the supply increases through construction, it will undoubtedly remain. Let us all work together to try to ease the pressure on the tenants to whom I refer.