2026-01-22

Why has rent been going up over the years? It is simple. It is because of a lack of supply. What we are doing now is making the decisions that bring certainty to the market and bring certainty to tenants through security of tenure. For the first time in the history of the State, we are bringing security of tenure. That is normal in almost every other country in Europe. We are doing these things to drive the supply. That is what this about. If you do not get more supply, rents are never coming down. Rents are only going in one direction. They will go up and up unless we increase the supply of apartments and homes across this country. We are already seeing the momentum coming back behind the decision I have announced I am making. We are seeing an increase in commencements and seeing an increase in the applications for planning permission. There is a kind of short-term populism of Members are pretending are defending the tenants. For me, renters are not just people who renting right now; it is all those people who are at home and who need somewhere to rent. By driving supply, you provide the accommodation for people to be able to move out, but you also drive down the rents.

When are rents going to fall?

Rents are directly linked to a lack of supply of homes. As usual, what we are not hearing from the Opposition parties at all is any alternative solution. Where are they getting their supply from? One in three euro of capital funding in this State is earmarked for housing and housing delivery. We hear calls from Opposition parties for more funding to go into it, but they will never say what they are going to cut. Where will they take the capital funding from? Is it from schools, roads or healthcare? That is never said. It is just spend more, spend more. Record funding is going in to housing. The reason, by the way, that we have record funding is our stewardship of the economy as well. Simply spending more is never the answer in and of itself. I want to see the average length of tenancies that people have go up and they will go up as a result of these decisions because it is going to be much harder for landlords to evict people for new tenancies going forward. We are going to see an extension of that through the security of tenure as well. This protects renters and it also drives investment in the delivery of homes. What we are not hearing from the Opposition is what their alternative is or how they are going to deliver the homes. They do not want private finance to deliver the homes so they will not say where the finance is coming from into it. Opposition Members seem to think that anything to do with bringing private finance into delivery is a dirty word. We are driving the supply. I appreciate they are going to oppose it and they are going to scaremonger among renters in relation to it, but, if we do not do this-----

They are scared of the Minister and rising rents.

-----rents are going to go up and up and up. The only solution the Deputy has put forward is a rent freeze. We know that does not work. We know all the international evidence is there that it does not work. All a rent freeze is a short-term populist move that is no benefit in terms of getting people the homes they need to live in, so we are making the necessary decisions to drive home delivery in this country.

The only certainty the Government is going create with this legislation is that hard-pressed renters who are paying rip-off rents are going to have to pay even more. That is the only certainty. There is an alternative. We have set it out over and over again, which is to temporarily ban rent increases, put money back into renters' pockets and deliver the kind of supply that renters need.

How did that go in Berlin?

Increase investment in social homes and increase investment in genuinely affordable homes. Increase support for the SME builder-developer sector to build homes for working people to buy. The Minister will not do any of those things. Instead, at the behest of the large corporate institutional investors, he is allowing for a market reset and that will do one thing and one thing only. It will mean a small increase in high-density, high-end, high-price private rental, which is not a solution to the crisis. We have set out the alternatives. We have showed the Minister how it will be costed, but the only people it is listening to is its old pals in Irish institutional property, one of whom is the former general secretary of his party, who asked for what? He asked for a market reset, reduced apartment standards and a VAT cut that nobody needs. What is the consequence? Renters will be screwed again and we will highlight this month after month, year after year, as supply does not increase but rents do. This is on the Minister and we will oppose this legislation tooth and nail.

The Minister talks about the Opposition not coming forward with solutions. I have been in this House over a year now. Time and again, we have come forward with amendments to legislation. The Government brings the Bill in, takes Committee and Remaining Stages very quickly in the House and guillotines it. We do not even have time with certain legislation to discuss the substantive amendments. I want to ask the Minister a very specific question on the proposed legislation. Notwithstanding his views on a rent freeze, which I do not agree with, would he accept an amendment to the Bill to allow for a rent break? He talks about policy certainty. Landlords, renters and investors need policy certainty, but we need policy certainty that if rents go to a certain level, something will kick in to stop them rising further. This is something that was in the report the Government's own TDs signed off on following pre-legislative scrutiny and it is something that Threshold has called for. Will the Minister accept an amendment in relation to an emergency rent break if rents go above a certain level?

I made it very clear and the Minister knows that we have alternatives. We set out a State fund that would actually increase funding for, not vulture funds but public affordable housing. The Government is completely out of touch and the Minister is too, to be honest. He has been captured. He has gone into the Ministry for housing and been captured by the investor funds. This is how clear it is that he has been captured. His Department is taking part in an event that is being billed as a global meeting point for global investors. The Department is setting up an "Irish Pavilion" for executives from international investment houses alongside Ministers. The Minister is working with the institutional investors to bring more funding in here that will be used to build more build-to-rent units that people cannot afford, bring more vulture funds to buy up properties and apartment blocks. This housing approach has not worked. It is not going to work. It is absolutely disgraceful that the Government is introducing a measure that it knows will lead to higher rents. Will the Minister answer the following question: does he accept that these measures are going lead to higher rents? He is so disconnected from people. There is going to be significant public backlash to this because people will see what the reality is. It is a decision for investors funds and that is why the Government is allowing rents to rise.

These lines are on repeat from the Opposition. Deputy Ó Broin keeps coming back in and saying that Sinn Féin has provided alternatives and never repeats them. The reason he never repeats is they were soundly rejected by the people-----

I repeat them every week.

-----in the general election. It is the same old line. He says them again and again, but he actually does not.

That is not true. You actually lied in the election. You said you would build 40,000 homes. You never did it.

My understanding is that there are rules against what the Deputy has just accused me of.

You are misleading the House and your party lied during the election. Those are the facts.

I understand there are rules in the House of what the Deputy has just accused me of. I am asking for a decision.

Will the Deputy withdraw those remarks?

It is a matter of public record. Fianna Fáil, Deputies Darragh O'Brien, Micheál Martin and Simon Harris. and Paschal Donohoe lied about housing completions during the election.

Deputy Ó Broin.

We have the evidence. It has been proved.

Deputy, will you address your remarks through the Chair? If you do not conclude your crossfire with the Minister when you are asked to do so, you will be asked to leave the Chamber.

I shall respect the Chair.

That is all I ask you to do. You can make your point as robustly as you like. You know the rules of the House in relation to the comments that were made. I cannot enforce those rules. It is up to the Deputies to decide whether you are going to withdraw the remarks or whatever the Minister is requesting-----

The truth is the truth.

-----but I ask you to please conduct the debate in a civil and mannerly way.

And in an honest manner.

That is fine

It is important to point out that Deputy Ó Broin's own leader has consistently and repeatedly made accusations against my own leader in relation to using the very phrase that I am accusing him of making, yet he is happy to come in here and use the same phrase repeatedly. Maybe he get a party policy position on the use of that word in here, which the Taoiseach absolutely denies using. As usual, there are double standards and we have it from the Deputy. The use of that kind of language epitomises the fact that the Deputy has no answers, his aim being to make headline accusations-----

The headlines were true.

-----that can be put on an Twitter account and, as he is doing, to throw as much mud as possible in relation to-----

The Minister's party lied during the general election campaign.

Deputy Ó Broin, wait for a minute. Can we just-----

Sorry, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, but the Minister's party lied during the general election campaign and was-----

He will not even answer the question.

Can we move to answering the questions-----

I am answering the accusation.

-----and leave this crossfire behind us?

He is defending the indefensible: rising rents and Government dishonesty. Well done, Minister.

The constant personalisation that comes from the Opposition is very insightful.

No. I am criticising the Minister’s policy failures.

We are going to drive investment in this country to deliver the supply. The Deputy says he wants to drive investment but does not say where it will come from.

Yes, I do. The Minister should debate me on radio at any time and I will explain it to him again.

The State has maximised the investment. The Deputy has never set out where he would get the additional billions of euro we need to deliver the homes.

We have set it out year after year.

We will drive down rents and get the homes the people need-----

He should publish the evidence that it will drive down rents. He has none.

-----by driving the supply in terms of delivery.

Deputy Ó Broin has no respect for the Chair or this House.

I have no respect for a Minister who is presiding over record homelessness, record rents and a record housing crisis.

Order, please, Deputy Ó Broin.

In relation to Deputy Sheehan’s point-----

Minister-----

-----all proposals will be examined and given a fair assessment.

To resume some sort of order in the House, I ask the Minister to resume his seat. I am going to move to the next question, No. 139, in the name of Deputy Gould.