As we all know, it has been raining solidly since what feels like forever and communities across the country continue to deal with the fallout of flooding. In that time, my office has also been flooded - with pleas for help from terrified renters who are starting the new year with eviction notices. Things were already bad enough for tenants, but the Government's appalling new rent law has given landlords an effective amnesty on rent hikes; an incentive to evict. It passed the Dáil last night by a small majority. People know they will now be forced to pay even higher rents for new tenancies. That is guaranteed. Perhaps that is the reason the debate was guillotined by the Government last night. It was forced through by Government after reaching only the ninth of 69 amendments. That is the signature move of the Minister, Deputy Browne. It is a nifty trick to avoid accountability and avoid light being shed on just how daft these housing plans are. Last year, debate on every single Bill from the Minister's Department was guillotined. Not one full Report Stage was taken in the Dáil. This new year, the term has kicked off with the same thing again on highly controversial legislation. It is bad governance from a bad Government, and this is a bad week for housing policy. It is one year since stroke politics delivered us this regressive tripartite coalition with the Lowry-Healy-Rae Independents. In truth, we are seeing the impact of this arrangement and their influence across housing policy. Let us take short-term lets. We all know they are cannibalising housing supply across the country. I know the Tánaiste wants to deal with this but this week, the Government again watered down its own proposals. Instead of towns with a population exceeding 10,000, the Government's regulations, whenever they eventually come into effect, will only apply to populations of more than 20,000. This is clearly a concession to the Lowry-Healy-Rae Independents. How curious it is that the population of Killarney is 14,000. We know what the results are. The Simon Communities’ Locked Out of the Market report, published this week, which the Tánaiste mentioned earlier, found zero properties available to rent within standard HAP limits across all 16 areas surveyed. Just 31 properties were available even at the higher discretionary rates, which is a pathetic 3% of all listings. Our Labour Party housing spokesperson, Deputy Sheehan, has acknowledged, as we all do, the flawed nature of HAP, but it is supposed to get people out of homelessness. I am glad that the Government is reviewing HAP limits, but what good is that when there is literally nowhere to rent? What are people who are contacting my office, and all our offices, with news of eviction notices supposed to do? What are they to do? I am working with one woman, a civil servant, who is being evicted from her home now. She tells me of her grave distress and constant worry and anxiety. She said the property has been her home for the last 14 years, but she now has nowhere to go. Some 5,000 children are homeless and 17,000 people are in emergency accommodation. Where are they to go? It has been a bad week for Government housing policy, but renters, families and children in homelessness are the ones living with the consequences. What is the Tánaiste doing to address this?

Sentiment score: -0.07

I think we can agree on one thing. There is a housing emergency.

Sentiment score: -0.01

There is no doubt about that. I have certainly welcomed, as have my Labour colleagues, positive aspects of the legislation. However, the unfortunate truth is that these are undermined by the provisions that enable rent hikes, which incentivise rent hikes and incentivise evictions for the purpose of rent hikes. That is the problem, and it is a problem that renters across the country are experiencing. The real truth also, which nobody in Government is willing to admit, is that there is no evidence that this will work. The Tánaiste says the Government is doing this in order to ramp up supply, but there is no evidence that will work. Indeed, I am hearing from landlords in my constituency who are telling me they are leaving rental properties. They are not going to rent out any more. Why? Because of the uncertainty and the enormous number of changes there have been. The reality, again, is that we need to have significant State intervention here. The Tánaiste acknowledged that the Labour Party put forward very strong proposals in the last election campaign in order to see the State deliver at scale and ramp up the Land Development Agency to create a State construction company. Only that will enable delivery at the scale that is required to deliver the homes people need.

Sentiment score: -0.03