We have had more than a decade of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael presiding over a housing emergency and now the Government proposes to force ripped-off renters to carry the can for its failures. The Government's plan for the private rental sector is really Fianna Fáil's rent hike Bill. It can spoof all it wants; the only certainty from this move is rent will increase for every renter. It is only a question of when. The average length of a tenancy is three and half years and many are much shorter, so the impact of this plan will be felt very quickly. All renters will be subject to large hikes over time. Those moving into new build properties will be hit with massive market rent from day one, while those who move frequently for work or education and regularly enter new tenancies will be absolutely hammered. We are talking about construction workers, healthcare workers in training and students who already struggle to find affordable accommodation being fleeced over and over. Fianna Fáil's rent hike Bill is a bonanza for the big property funds, the vultures and corporate landlords. It is a blueprint to boost the profit of the big boys and screw over renters. That is the Government's plan. It is doing this during a persistent cost-of-living crisis where people are being hit with price hikes right across the board. In the past four years, the cost of the weekly shop has sky-rocketed by €3,000 per year for many families and renters are forking out an additional €7,000 a year on average in rent. Where does the Taoiseach think people get the money? Everything within the Government's back-of-an-envelope plan is a jumble of contradictions. It is the product of a panicked Government at sixes and sevens, desperately seeking to defend a plan which more resembles a last throw of the dice gamble than an actual solution. It has been blunder after blunder. The Government had to change the press statement announcing the plan because it made such a mess of things. The Taoiseach said one thing, the Minister said another thing and the left hand did not know what the right hand was doing. Nowhere in the announcement on Tuesday, or in the days that followed, was there any mention of Government immediately bringing forward legislation to extend rent pressure zones, RPZs, to the entire State. The Government was content to wait until March and expose renters to big hikes. By Thursday, lo and behold, the Government had changed its story and it was adamant that it was always its intention to bring forward that legislation. Taoiseach, pull the other one. The Government is only doing this now because it was called out on it. Such is the mess now that we have Government TDs briefing against the housing Minister for, in their words, producing a plan that he cannot explain and that they cannot understand. I am happy to explain it to them. This is Fianna Fáil's plan to hike up rents; that is it. That is the bottom line. Cinntíonn Bille Fhianna Fáil chun cíos a ardú go rachaidh an cíos in airde do gach cíosaí. Níl orainn ach fanacht. Ní féidir leanúint leis seo. The only way to undo the damage is to go back to the drawing board. By all means, extend RPZs to the rest of the State and to areas that should have never been left out in the first place. However, the Government has to drop the rest of the Fianna Fáil rent hike Bill. It is a crazy plan and renters simply cannot take any more.
Sentiment score: -0.06
It might interest the Taoiseach to know that, far from having an ideological objection to rental accommodation, I was raised in rental accommodation. Imagine that.
Sentiment score: 0.23
I have no ideological objection. As a matter of fact, I am determined that renters, whether long-term renters, as is the case with my family, or shorter term renters, which is the more normal experience, are not fleeced and gouged in the way that is currently happening. I do not know how blunt or clear we have to be with the Taoiseach, but renters now pay thousands of euro more than just a few short years ago, and all the additional costs due to the cost-of-living crisis. The Taoiseach can stand up and bluster and cast aspersions at me all he likes, but he is in government, he is the Taoiseach and it is his housing Minister who is proposing a Bill that will have one definite effect, namely, higher rents for renters.
Sentiment score: -0.03
I appeal to the Taoiseach-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
-----not to do that. Renters have had enough.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The Taoiseach must have some decency and some consideration for people who are struggling.
Sentiment score: -0.42
Blah, blah, blah.
Sentiment score: -0.30
That is not true.
Sentiment score: -0.33
Who is in government?
Sentiment score: 0.00
There are record rents.
Sentiment score: 0.00
It will increase rent.
Sentiment score: 0.32
It will increase rent. The Taoiseach knows that.
Sentiment score: 0.16
The Taoiseach does not care about renters. We have got his answer.
Sentiment score: -0.19
Driving up rents.
Sentiment score: 0.00
To drive up rents.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The big man who will not answer a question.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Hear, hear.
Sentiment score: 0.00