There is a consistent and ongoing effort to misrepresent the factual situation in relation to the new rent rules and rental reform. I welcome the opportunity this morning in the Dáil to, I hope, disprove some of the scaremongering and misinformation and to provide some facts to people who are watching at home and would like to know the facts. First, from 1 March, there is no change at all for existing tenancies - none, zero, none at all, no change. That is really important. What does come into place from 1 March is a balanced package of measures, which includes within it some of the greatest protections we have ever had in the history of our State for renters. That is not just my view. That is the view of the University College Dublin, UCD, professor of social justice who spoke on this in recent weeks as well.
Sentiment score: 0.27
We will see greater protection for renters than ever before. For the very first time ever, we will see nationwide rent pressure zones. For the first time ever, we will see six-year rolling tenancies providing people with that security of tenure. For the first time ever, in many ways, we will see an effective no-fault eviction ban. We brought in very strict and stringent rules in relation to that as well. Yes, from March, it is possible for new tenancies to be set at market rates but here is the next bit. It is only possible for them to be set once and then they need to be locked in at that level for the next six years other than being able to rise for-----
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Other than being able to-----
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We are not going to do this; we are going to have a serious conversation. That is other than being able to rise for inflation and, even then, capped at 2%. For the first time ever, somebody who takes out a new tenancy in March will have that six-year security, the protection of an effective no-fault eviction ban, and will also know the rent cannot rise further during that six years, except in line with inflation but no more than 2%. This 25% figure Deputy Doherty's party leader threw around this House yesterday is not a fair representation at all. That is not my view. This morning on national radio, as Deputies may have heard, and if she has not heard it, I hope Deputy McDonald will go back and listen to it, the representative body for the investment company quoted in the Dáil yesterday felt it necessary to go on national radio to describe Deputy McDonald's comments yesterday as, first, not correct, and, second, as absolutely a complete mischaracterisation of the issue. That is important for the people at home. These are people-----
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These are people the Deputies would know well because Deputy Ó Broin has met them twice in the past year according to the lobbying register. These are investment companies-----
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They know well in Sinn Féin. They have met them twice in the past year.
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I do not know what Deputy Gould talked to them about but they met them twice.
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They have come out and said that what Sinn Féin said about it being 25% simply is not true. They said that the 25% was a projected figure over ten years. Deputy Doherty left that out. It is a projected figure over a period of ten years. Sinn Féin obviously recognises, or at least I think it does, there is a need for private investment to come into the rental market. I presume it does because its members keep meeting the companies. The lobbying register is full of times they, particularly Deputy Ó Broin, have met the companies to discuss these opportunities. Let us not scaremonger. People's rents are not increasing by 25% in March. No existing tenancy will see any change. Nationwide rent pressure zones will come into being. We will have an effective no-fault eviction ban. Yes, for new tenancies, for the first time, the market rate can be set but then it must be locked except for allowing for inflation. That is a significant protection. All this is done with one aim only, that is, to increase more supply because without supply and private investment, according to the Housing Commission, we will not be able to have renters and home owners. We need to keep on doing supply.
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What I would say to the young people at home-----
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Do not shout me down.
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I would like my time protected to answer the question.
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I would say to the people watching at home, yesterday, Sinn Féin came into the Dáil and suggested people’s rents were going to rise by 25% in March.
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Today, the Sinn Féin spokesperson has acknowledged that is not a fact-----
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-----and actually acknowledged a moment ago that his figures may take a number of years to come about.
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It has been found out today on national radio by people saying the Sinn Féin leader's representation in this House yesterday was a complete mischaracterisation. Hypocrisy-----
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May I speak, please?
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Hypocrisy from Sinn Féin is not new when it comes to housing.
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We have a situation where Sinn Féin talks about investors as though it does not like them, as though they are not good.
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The Sunday Times last week showed Sinn Féin has received millions
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I would like to speak.
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It is very unfair.
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Sorry, but there is a serious issue here.
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If I am allowed, in line with the rules of the House, to respond-----
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-----in the minute that is given to me to respond to the charges that are put across this House. The position put forward by Sinn Féin in telling people their rents are going to rise by 25% is categorically untrue. It is being done to scaremonger and to worry. Sinn Féin talks about investment funds as though they are the big bad wolf while regularly meeting them, according to the lobbying register, and while accepting millions of dollars from construction companies and property developers in Friends of Sinn Féin in the United States, as we saw in The Sunday Times.
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They are hypocrites when it comes to this. We are on the side of renters. That is why we are increasing supply-----
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-----and bringing in rent protection that nobody has ever seen before.
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We are on the side of renters. Sinn Féin is on the side of absolute hypocrisy. Seriously.
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When you cut through the noise, all you get from Sinn Féin is hypocrisy.
Sentiment score: -0.27
I thank Deputy Sherlock for raising this very important, sensitive and real issue in our country, our prisons and in relation to our mental health services. It is something that I know is having a real and painful impact and is a worry for many families in our country too. I join with the many who have already thanked those who spoke on the recent "RTÉ Investigates" programme on the forensic mental health services for sharing their lived experiences and giving voice to issues that should not be seen or debated in this House as abstractions. While I am not a clinician, the responsibility of the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health and all of us in the Government must be to maintain public confidence in an essential service for a highly vulnerable group of patients - I use the word "patients" because that is what they are - and the dedicated staff who care for them. I spoke to the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, recently on this. She has asked the HSE for full reports on the cases highlighted in the programme, particularly those involving the Central Mental Hospital. I just want to make that point. The Minister of State has also asked that all appropriate care options for the individuals featured be examined. There are actions under way to try to improve this situation. I know it is a statement of fact but it is important to remind us all that the Central Mental Hospital is just that; it is a hospital. Its purpose is and must be to provide treatment to support rehabilitation but also to have a carefully, safe, managed environment to help people return to the community where possible. We have seen demand for forensic mental health services grow in recent years and we have seen the opening of the new CMH at Portrane. That was an important moment. It saw the transfer of over 90 patients from an old, outdated, really inappropriate building in the Dundrum facility to a new hospital that has been recognised as one of the best forensic mental health hospitals in Europe. However, we need to open more beds in it. We have 114 operational beds at CMH. That is an increase of 20% on the former hospital. Additional funding has been secured to open the remaining 16 beds and recruiting staff is the key priority here. There is a need for very specialised staff in some of these settings, as the Deputy will be aware. An additional €2.8 million was provided in budget 2026 to open what they call the new ICRU which will bring beds into use that will support smoother patient movement through the Portrane campus and will also create further space. On our prisons specifically, we already have two psychiatric intensive care units at Carraig Mór centre in Cork and the Phoenix care centre in Dublin, and we are also now providing psychiatric in-reach services to ten of our country's 12 prisons, assessing and treating prisoners with moderate to severe mental illness. Additional funding has also been provided to extend this service to Limerick Prison and we are very eager to progress with that as quickly as possible. There is a programme for Government commitment. I think the Deputy has a different point of view on health and the Prison Service but the view was here that there was a need to provide within the Prison Service for people who require imprisonment to meet their mental health needs, separate and distinct from the health needs that could be provided in the hospital.
Sentiment score: 0.23
I take the Deputy's point and I accept her bone fides in relation to this but this is an issue Government is taking extraordinarily seriously. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is taking a very hands-on leadership approach to this area. I thank her for that. She has the support of all of us in government. On the specific, very worrying and concerning revelations in the "RTÉ Investigates" programme, the Minister has sought a full report from the HSE on each of the experiences and cases highlighted in that programme. I know she is very eager to get that report and is very eager to be able to work through any such report on a response to the issues. Objectively and fairly, the decision we took to invest in, and now open, a brand new, state-of-the-art Central Mental Hospital, deemed one of the best forensic mental heath hospitals in Europe, is a major step forward in forensic mental health services in this country. If you had all the money and all the staff in the world, you would still open that hospital on a phased basis to get it right and to do it in a very orderly way considering the complexity of care that is required. We have seen that. Ninety three patients have been successfully moved, capacity has been increased to 114 and there is now a process to continue to open all of the beds. More broadly, should there be an ability of the mental health services to spend more capital the Government will provide that funding.
Sentiment score: 0.28
I have never been accused of having a craven ideology before. Our only policy objective in this coalition Government is to make sure we build more homes for our people to buy and rent and to make sure we deliver supply. Without properties, apartments and homes to buy or rent, every conversation we have in this House is interesting but academic. It is interesting but abstract if we do not build enough homes. The Housing Commission, which I am sure did not have any ideology either, as it had lots of different perspectives and backgrounds, said very clearly that there was a need for private investment in terms of getting to the supply. I make the point respectfully that it is surely not the Deputy's position that the only people who should be building apartments should be the State. Surely we see the benefit in private investment alongside an unparalleled level of State investment in housing. We are investing more than most European countries in housing supply, yet we know, as do the Housing Commission and everybody who has looked, that in and of itself will not be enough. It will not be enough to fix the housing emergency unless we also attract in others to add private investment funds. If we talk of ideology, we should be very careful we do not demonise that. We need a diversity of supply. We also need lots of different types of building and construction under way. I hope the Deputy would accept the points I have made in this House that the comments this morning on national radio regarding the 25% clarify there was never a position that was going to be in a year or, indeed, in two or three years. That was apparently a projection, according to the comment on the radio this morning, over ten years. I am not saying anyone did it intentionally but it has been done in such a manner that has caused fear and worry. Nobody is suggesting market rents are going to be reset at 25%; not the investment fund the Deputy quoted. That investment fund has clarified that this morning. It is important we make that point too. I have acknowledged, because it is the truth, that from March it will be possible for new tenancies to have rents set to market rate. I have also said, and it is only fair the Opposition also says this, that along side that there is a protection for the renter that is not there today, in that their tenancy is secure for six years and their rent cannot be adjusted beyond inflation capped at 2% for the next six years. That is a significant protection for people who rent a property. They know they are there for six years, there is an effective no-fault eviction ban in place and their rent is effectively capped at no more than a 2% increase per year. That is a significant package of changes. Yes, there are comments from all sides of the debate - the left, the right and everywhere - about how we could have done this or done that. Lots of different people have a different perspective. The Government has tried to arrive at a balanced point of view here, one that drives more people to invest because, by God, we need it - we need more homes and apartments built in this country - but also one that, alongside that, puts in place a very ambitious, comprehensive set of protections for renters that have not existed in this country before and have been warmly welcomed by many, including those in the UCD school of social policy.
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As has Deputy O'Callaghan.
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I patronisingly get asked by the Opposition whether I do not understand, but does the Opposition not understand that we have to increase supply? We have to increase supply. I never hear from the Opposition, beyond more State investment - which we are doing - what policy lever the Opposition would pull to encourage more people to build more apartments. The people who vote for them and those who vote for me-----
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We have very significant levels of State investment. We have a Land Development Agency-----
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Maybe the Social Democrats will give Deputy Hearne a go at Leaders' Questions one day. We are investing more than ever in housing. We are investing more than most European countries - genuinely.
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However, there is a need and it is not just my view and it is certainly not my craven ideology; it is the view of the Housing Commission-----
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No, it said to get in private investment. There is no Government policy to do that.
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The Government's policy is to stimulate private investment-----
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-----but alongside that put in place a package that the Opposition is refusing to acknowledge because it does not work for their social media clips.
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There will be an effective no-fault eviction ban. The Opposition will put up a selective clip that will put the fear of God in people in relation to rent but it will not tell them about the no-fault eviction ban.
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It will not tell them about nationwide renters' protections. It will not tell them that, actually, the sound bites delivered in here yesterday were dispelled on national radio today. Let us be fair on this sensitive issue. Let us actually bring forward ideas in relation to this. We are bringing forward a balanced package to stimulate supply and protect renters.
Sentiment score: 0.17
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and reminding us of a lot of the very good work that has been done by that office since its establishment. I recall the appointment of Leigh Gath, who I think was the first confidential recipient. She was a woman whom I knew and she did incredible work. She was a Thalidomide survivor herself and a disability advocate. She really did excellent work and I acknowledge that and think of her today. I will ask the Minister for Health to come back to the Deputy directly with any further information or thoughts on this but my understanding is that when the office was originally established much of the structure that is in place today in relation to safeguarding, and even the role of the chief social worker within the HSE, bizarrely, perhaps, did not exist. There has been a very significant overhaul of the structures in place. We now have a chief social worker. That chief social worker has that overall responsibility for delivery of adult safeguarding services. We have had expert reviews in relation to that role and the structure of safeguarding services within the HSE as well. My understanding, and based on what the Deputy has said, which I have no reason to disbelieve or doubt, is that the confidential recipient's reporting line will now be to the chief social worker as opposed to the chief executive of the HSE. I make the point that, even as originally constructed, the office always reported in, for want of a better phrase, to the HSE, whether to the CEO or the director general previously. In this case, there is some wisdom to the idea that the chief social worker is a person who has a level of professional expertise and qualification that may indeed be more appropriate. The structure has changed. I genuinely do not believe there is any attempt to downgrade or in any way devalue the vital work done. I reiterate the Government's view that this work is vital, beneficial and has made a very significantly positive impact on improvements to our health service. We want to see that continue. However, the structure of the HSE has changed and there is now a chief social worker position that did not exist when the original structure was put in place. That is my understanding of the change, no more and no less. I will ask the Minister for Health to reflect further on the Deputy's comments and revert to him.
Sentiment score: 0.22
I disagree with the Deputy's characterisation of it but I appreciate the point he is trying to make. It is a highly important issue that we all need to be alert to. This office has operated since day one as an independent office. It was an independent office that receives confidential information and then reports it to the HSE's CEO. When it was reporting it as an independent office to the HSE's CEO, there was no chief social work officer responsible for reforming and driving reform in this area. There now is. Certainly the Minister can revert to the Deputy on some of the concerns he has raised, but I want to be really clear: the office remains independent. There has been no effort to subsume the office into the HSE's internal structures. What has changed, and the Deputy is correct on this, is the reporting structure. The confidential recipient now reports in their information to the chief social worker and had previously reported in to the HSE's CEO. That is being done from a place of wanting to reflect how-----
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-----the HSE now operates and the role and the value of the chief social worker because the chief social worker has been a positive addition, for the many reasons that the Deputy outlined, to the HSE. I will ask the Minister to come back to the Deputy further.
Sentiment score: 0.36