Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to comment on a number of points. It is unacceptable for Bills to come through the House if they are not ready to be amended and we have to wait for a strategy to feed into them. It seems like a pointless exercise. It seems that it is being rushed through all Stages in the Seanad so that it will be too late for us to pick up on the things we want to amend, which removes the Seanad's scrutinising role and its ability to feed into policy. We are being asked to wait until a later date when we will have no input.

This amendment is not about supply. We support the legislation in respect of increasing supply. This amendment is about decreasing homelessness so to attach it to supply is not accurate. Senator McDowell gave an overview of the situation this amendment could bring about. I think this is also incorrect. Our amendment will cease to exist in December 2019 and the only way it will continue will be if the Minister extends it. This is an emergency measure for a short period of time, not something that will ensure stagnant rents forever more, as Senator McDowell argued, because it will cease in 2019, hopefully, when we have come out the other side of a housing emergency, which should declared a national emergency. Any sort of emergency strategy that is introduced should be supported. If something better arises out of the rental strategy, fair enough but in the interim, this amendment is too important for it not to be pressed at this stage.

There is another provision in the law, which is that rent cannot be higher than the market rate. This amendment will strengthen that. That means there will be two provisions in place to effectively decrease the level of homelessness in this country for the next number of years. I think Senator Colm Burke said that if inflation rose by 10% or 15%, rents would also rise. We are not attaching rents to inflation. We are saying that one cannot have rents that are higher than inflation. We are not suggesting that when inflation shoots up, rents shoot up with it. We are just saying that one cannot go higher than the rate of inflation. We will press this amendment.