I cannot tell the Minister how many times I have marched in the streets protesting about housing. I have done it against what feels like every single one of the Minister's predecessors. A huge reason I have been so frustrated with Government parties and why I joined the Social Democrats was the utter failure in housing for my generation over multiple governments. Today, years after I first started political activism in protesting on housing, I find myself in this Chamber as a private sector rental tenant with the unique opportunity to tell the Minister exactly what is wrong with housing in Ireland and how his proposed legislation runs the severe risk of making it worse. First, some facts and figures. About 30% of the population in this country rent. In my own constituency, where we are standing right now, about 50% of people rent. I am one of the very few renters who has ever entered this House and spoken in it. The number of people renting in the private rental sector in Ireland has approximately doubled since the 1990s. After the property crash, private equity institutions that were welcomed by this Government and previous governments flooded the Irish market. Today in Dublin, 25% of all tenancies are with large institutional landlords, among the highest concentration anywhere in Europe. Dublin's rents and property prices are among the highest in the developed world. Why is it that Irish exceptionalism always revolves around property? The core proposal in this Bill is the reimagining of tenure based on six-year rolling tenancies for all new entrants. This will provide landlords with the opportunity to reset rents, perhaps even drastically, at the expense of the tenant. This will inevitably lead to higher rents, which are already among the highest in the developed world. Does greed have no limit this Government is willing to set? Is it so wedded to the interests of international private equity that it would sacrifice entire generations in perpetuity to satisfy its lust for wealth? This Bill is the latest incarnation of a Government that is more interested in turning Dublin into a city for the rich at the expense of everyone else. What garda - perhaps the one in the Gallery - or nurse or teacher will be able to afford the highest rents in Europe six years from now? What student or trainee in a graduate programme will be able to live their 20s without flirting with poverty? Through this Bill, the Government is accelerating the breaking of the social contract, pushing people into the high-cost private rental sector, creating precarity rather than security, and incentivising exploitation rather than ensuring there is no floor through which anyone can fall. There is also the critical question of the enforcement of current rules and regulations as well as the new ones. I have numerous reports in my constituency of landlords subverting rules to double or triple rental rates, and with small landlords retaining most of their rights to evict in this Bill, the security of tenure measures may not be sufficient. I have a word of warning for the Minister. The good people of this country will not stand for the Government's continued failures in housing. Importantly, the Minister's voters in Fianna Fáil will not stand for it either. In door after door in my constituency, I consistently meet parents who are worried for their children and grandchildren, who often have them in their home. Even young parents are worried that the cycle of housing improvement is so long that their little ones will grow into an Ireland that seeks to prey on them rather than nurture them and export them rather than strengthen them. Those parents and grandparents recognise that the Minister is sacrificing their loved ones on an altar of avarice. The thing about those who preside over the betrayal of a generation is that they often meet a similar end themselves.

Sentiment score: 0.04