Maria McCormack (Sinn Fein)

Where do I start with this Bill? When I got my head around it, there is more confusion than anything else. I understand the pressures the Minister is under. We know housing is an emergency. When I went through it, I felt like this was some kind of a sick joke.

The Government has failed so badly on housing that we are running out of ways to explain to it how badly it is doing. Record numbers of homelessness continue to rise, as do the record house prices and record rental prices. In addition, sadly, the number of young people giving up on Ireland and heading to the likes of Australia continues to rise. The Government is now accepting that it will not meet its target for the number of houses to be built this year. Yet, here we have a Bill that amends the one bit of legislation that supports and protects renters with rent caps for rent pressure zones.

What does the Bill actually do for renters? Instead of giving renters hope or stability, it will lead to even greater rent increases for tens of thousands of renters. They are all contacting me. The Government's solution to rising rents is to cause rents to rise even further, at a time when rents are at a record high and we have a massive cost-of-living crisis. We are in a housing emergency. What renters need is a ban on rent increases for at least a three-year period and a dedicated plan to deliver enough social, affordable and private-purchase homes in that time. Sinn Féin supports the expansion of the rent pressure zones across the State, of course, but it must be done with immediate effect. It is like we are giving with one hand but taking back with the other.

I find I am met with total confusion at the increased complexity of this new regulation. Different settings having different rules will no doubt make it harder for tenants, especially vulnerable tenants, to understand and vindicate their rights. We will probably now see an increase in rogue landlords exploiting this complexity and exploiting vulnerable tenants, or non-professional landlords getting caught out because they have struggled to understand the new rules. The RTB is already inundated with cases. For sure, these changes will only increase its workload.

In my constituency of Laois, like most public representatives, I hear people’s struggles with the housing crisis every day and their experiences with renting. In recent months, I have heard a very similar story from constituents coming to my advice clinic, such as couples who have not had the chance to live independently as a family and couples who have a child but, because they have to live separately while raising their child, whose relationship has been strained and who now live separate lives. It is normally fathers in those cases, and they do not have adequate accommodation, so they cannot have equal access to their child. The men coming to me are desperate for help to be a good father and to have access to their kids. Where are we to put them - on a floor or in a bed at their parents’ house? One man in his forties explained to me how he is back living with his parents but they are too unwell for him to have his children over.

This story is becoming very common. Families do not stand a chance because their basic necessity to have a roof over their head is just not there. They have to live apart and, in some cases, they have to present as homeless, and if they are working, that is not an option. A whole cohort of working families are earning too much to qualify for social housing and, at the same time, earning too little to get a mortgage. They are caught in the middle and stuck in the rental trap. These are the people I am talking about.

Extending the rent pressure zones is great, but if we do not have a freeze on the rising rents, these are the people we are affecting, and we are screwing them even more. The Bill is throwing these families to the wolves. I ask the Minister to support the amendment to freeze rent for three years and have a proper plan to increase houses so we can see an end to this housing crisis. If we just bring this in now and rents go up, those families will be completely left behind.