The average rent of a two-bedroom flat is now €2,176 a month. That is the highest on record. It is equal to €26,000 a year. Incredibly, a PAYE worker has to earn €32,000 just to be able to pay for that rent currently. The average rent in Dublin city is now heading towards €3,000 a month. That is eye-watering. It is incredible that now Dublin is the highest in the whole of the EU for one- and two-bedroom apartments. Rent in Dublin is now for the rich. The number of evictions increased by 50% in the first three months last year. The Government's policies have led to 7,062 evictions in just one quarter. It is incredible. The equivalent to the population of a full Irish town was evicted just in the first quarter of this year. It has enormous human consequences. Ciaran and Jessie Redmond are from County Wicklow. They worked all their lives. Their daughter has now got leukaemia. Ciaran has had to leave his job to look after his daughter and help in her treatment. Jessie works and the family income is just above the threshold for supports. They are now facing eviction and going into emergency accommodation because of the Government's policies. I have listened to the Taoiseach. His Government has been in power in one form or another for the past ten years. In that time, rents have increased by 80%. Rents have increased in 13 of the past 14 years. Each year, we hear him declare that we have turned a corner and each year those rents keep coming up. It is not by accident. We in Aontú warned that his policies would actively push up rents but he knew this. This was actually meant to happen. The Taoiseach admitted it in his answer to the Social Democrats that this is actually a market activation tool. The Taoiseach believes that if rents go up, viability will increase, more builders will come into the market and house supply will increase. The Government could have achieved that viability without hitting hard-pressed renters. It could have cut VAT on house building. It could have cut connection fees on house building. VAT and connection fees work up about €50,000 in each housing unit. That would have reduced the price on families and increased viability, bringing more builders into the market and increasing supply. Viability is not the only problem in this. Planning and infrastructure are so dysfunctional that even if we get more builders in, it is not going to make a difference. Uisce Éireann said to us in the committee that it will take until 2050 before all the gaps in the water infrastructure, which are blocking the building of homes, will be filled. Planning, permitting, licensing, procurement, tendering and judicial reviews, all the tools the Government has in the sector, are all glacial in this country. Will the Government reverse this rent policy? Will it reform the dysfunction in planning and infrastructure? Will it ease the tax pressure on the building of new homes?
Sentiment score: 0.05
Just apartments.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Planning and procurement.
Sentiment score: 0.00
There is another aspect to this debate that is completely missing from the Chamber and that is the issue of demand. Leaving certificate economics will tell us demand is also a large aspect of this crisis. The population of the country has increased by 382,000 in the past five years. This is the same as the population of Galway, Mayo and Leitrim. These counties have seven hospitals, three universities, 400 schools and 170,000 homes. The Government is simply not building this level of infrastructure at the moment. One of the most basic rules of economics is that if demand increases without increasing supply, rents and house prices will rise and availability will reduce. There is a lot of talk in the Chamber about sustainability. It is unsustainable to allow demand for housing to exceed supply every year and that is what is happening. Will the Government reduce tax on homes and increase connections? Will it reform the planning system? Will it invest properly in infrastructure? Will it decrease the number of people coming to Ireland during this crisis?
Sentiment score: -0.10
It is a minority of people coming in the health sector.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The Taoiseach admits it is a factor.
Sentiment score: 0.30
Then it has to be dealt with
Sentiment score: 0.00