Chris Andrews (Sinn Fein)

This Government’s approach to renters is astonishing. Rents are at an all-time high and have been increasing for years, with no hope in sight from Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael. Renters have received next to nothing from this or the previous Government. Tenants are being extorted by their landlords and, in many cases, forking over the majority of their wages to the landlord for the privilege of having a roof over their head. Particularly in Dublin, ordinary people are being priced out of the communities they grew up in.

The luxury apartment buildings that have flooded the city from the south inner city over to Ringsend and Irishtown and down to Ballsbridge and Rathmines are completely unaffordable to the vast majority of the population and only exist to store capital for the multinationals and investment firms. An example of that is Capital Dock in the docklands, right next to the Whelan-O’Rahilly flats. Many of those units are empty because the landlord will not drop the rent because it will affect his overall revenue. Even for those with well-paid professional jobs and high levels of education, the idea of renting your own apartment, as is the norm in most European countries, is completely out of reach, unless you want to give up on any prospect of saving for a mortgage.

The lack of affordable housing is the biggest issue in this country, stifling economic growth and depriving ordinary people of the secure lives they deserve.People are living in squalor in overcrowded conditions. People are living at home well into their adult lives. They are living on the street or in emergency accommodation. For a country as rich as ours, our failure on housing is inexcusable and solely the result of a purposely exploitative or disastrously ineffective housing policy. We desperately need emergency action on housing and huge investment in our public social housing stock, coupled with comprehensive regulation of our private rental sector, to ensure tenants are put first.

What is the Government's priority during all of this? It is to gut the few regulations we have to line the pockets of its investor friends. The proposals introduced in recent days will lead to further rent increases for tenants, placing even more pressure on ordinary people in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.

Due to pressure from the Opposition, the Government half-heartedly acknowledged this fact and introduced this Bill to delay disastrous rent increases for those renters not currently living in RPZs. The shameful reality is that the Government's proposal intends to completely dismantle RPZs and weaken tenant protections in the long term. The Government is completely out of touch with the needs and concerns of residents and renters. The shambolic and confused way in which these reforms have been brought forward make this painfully obvious. We need RPZs to be expanded State-wide for an additional two years, not just the measly two months proposed. We need these proposed changes to be scrapped and for the Government to instead commit to adopting a tenant-based approach that is focused on ensuring everyone in this country has the home they need and deserve.

Pearse House residents are devastated that the regeneration programme has been dropped. They have emailed the Minister and sought a meeting with him. The least he could do is meet them, given that their expectations were high that regeneration would transform people's lives. The Minister has not had the decency to meet or reply to the residents. The least Minister can do is meet the residents and hear their issues.