The so-called rent reform plan the Government announced yesterday is a shambles. The Taoiseach is literally all over the place, confused by his own back-of-the-envelope proposal and unclear as to what he is saying. There is one thing that is clear - the Government's plan will push up rents even further. It is only a question of when renters will be hit. The Government will allow landlords themselves to set a market rate for rent. After 1 March and throughout the course of next year tens of thousands of renters will face higher rents. Some will pay full market rent at the start of their tenancy and all will face big hikes at the end of their tenancies. Tenants entering new build properties will be hit with market-level rents on day one and, with rent increases tied to inflation thereafter, they are set to see their rents rise sharply. Fianna Fáil rolls the dice on housing once again. The Government does all of this with no guarantee that it will lead to any significant increase in supply. The Housing Agency is very clear on that score. Even in the most optimistic of scenarios, the Government's plan will see landlords of high-end apartments in exclusive pockets of Dublin charging eye-watering rents but in the rest of Dublin and in every other county there will be no extra supply but there will be much higher rents. In fact, there is a very real danger the Government's plan will actually tighten supply as landlords will now delay putting properties back on the market in order to charge a higher rent from next March. The Government says it will extend the rent protection to the 20% of renters it has left behind over a number of years. These are renters in rural areas, who have been hit by double digit rent increases already. If the Government does not act to extend that protection immediately, these renters will be put at immediate risk of big rent hikes as landlords move to get ahead of the Government's changes. Then we come to the confusion the Taoiseach sowed in this Chamber yesterday. It was clear from the statement issued by the Minister, Deputy Browne, at lunchtime that the Government's plan is to allow all landlords to apply full market rent at the end of six-year tenancies. This clearly meant people staying in an existing property and signing a new tenancy agreement, along with people moving into a property for the first time. Then the Taoiseach was caught out, so throughout the afternoon he scrambled around, denying this was the case and then, sometime in the evening, somebody slipped off and, bizarrely, changed the press release on the Department website to have a new wording - a wording that changes nothing. This is not about protecting renters at all. This is about making renters carry the can for the Government's failure in housing. The Government will allow record rents to be hiked up in the pitiful hope that big investors will save the day. It is the same casino behaviour that created this mess in the first place. Tá plean an Rialtais maidir le cíos imithe in abar idir neamhréiteach agus neamhinniúlacht. Is é an t-aon rud atá cinnte ná go rachaidh cíos in airde gan aon chinnteacht go dtiocfaidh feabhas ar an soláthar. Why is the Government delaying extending the rental protection until March? Why is it allowing landlords to set the market rate rents themselves? What analysis has the Government done? Can the Taoiseach tell us how many renters will be hit by massive rent increases from 1 March under the Government's plan?
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Try answering my questions.
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That is very ignorant.
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The only person who has managed to sow confusion is the Taoiseach, ably assisted by the Minister, Deputy Browne. I am very glad he was listening so attentively to me this morning. I hope he heard my appeal again to him to stop screwing things up. It is almost as if the Taoiseach deliberately set out repeatedly to make a mess of things. Deputy Martin is the Taoiseach, accountable to the House. I have put questions to him. They are reasonable and fair questions that renters all across the State are asking. Here is his fair and balanced package. For the investors - yes, cuckoos and vultures - what do they get? They get the opportunity for a higher rent yield. That is the big attraction into the market to boost supply, as the Taoiseach would have it. Of course, they pay not one cent in tax on their rent roll. That is nice, is it not? That is for them. Then what for the renter?
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The only certainty is that rents will rise. When the Taoiseach takes to his feet he might answer the questions I asked originally in respect of rolling out protections and what analysis has been done in respect of rents going up.
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You are telling untruths, is it?
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This is distraction tactics.
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Answer the question.
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He is not the Taoiseach.
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It is true.
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Yes, until-----
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Until the tenancy ends.
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Increase the rent-----
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That is inaccurate information.
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