Ivana Bacik (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 53:

In page 16, to delete lines 32 to 35.

I will speak briefly to the amendment because we have not debated it yet. However, I am conscious that we have had quite extensive debate on section 12 and the concept of affordability, section 12 being about affordable dwelling purchase arrangements. In particular, Senator Moynihan and I, on behalf of the Labour Party, have been calling for the concept of affordability to be linked to income rather than to market value. We have made those arguments. I am conscious of the need to have time to move to our amendments to provisions in Part 3 of the Bill and to debate cost rental. While we are strongly advocating for the provision of more affordable homes and the building of more houses that are affordable to all, it is clear that a big part of this is ensuring affordability of rents as well and, indeed, security of tenure for tenants. We need to look very closely in this legislation at the provisions on rental. I will not press the amendment at this point. We are putting it forward as a further amendment to section 12. We have tabled amendments to later sections and we want to have time to debate the provisions on cost rental later this afternoon.