Chris Andrews
Labour Panel · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“I want to move an amendment to No. 1 on the Order Paper, proposing an orderly winding down of the accommodation recognition payment scheme in a way that is fair and efficient. I note today is the last day of Dáil and Seanad sittings before the summer recess.”
“The Government can point to housing and claim that there are huge successes. There is only success for the wealthy, the well-off, the developers and the landlords. They are all delighted with Government policy.”
“Government will say, "Look at the positives", but there are a huge amount of challenges. You need not look any further than the housing crisis. Of course, the Government will point to an increased number of housing developments. However, those housing developments are for the very well-off.”
“We supported the development of housing on the Glass Bottle site. We worked hard to ensure to get more social housing. Unfortunately, the Government would not do that. Now it seems that the so-called "affordable housing" on the Glass Bottle site will be unaffordable.”
“I move amendment No. 14: In page 7, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following: “Annual report 11. The Minister shall, within the first six months of the year, lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas a report outlining the application of this Act, providing an update on— (a) how many successful actions were brought under section 14…”
“I move amendment No. 2: In page 4, between lines 4 and 5, to insert the following: “ “settlement service” means a service provided in whole or in part within a postal code or relevant occupied territory to which this Act applies;”.”
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“Well, we have done the studies and the figures are there. The Minister of State should be honest with his constituents in Cork because it is going to have a massive impact on people. Those same people are going to end up in homeless services, back at home or couch surfing. People in addiction are not going to be able to recover out of their addiction because they will be trying to navigate the many obstacles put in their way, such as when it comes to childcare and recovery services. It is going to have a huge impact on everybody in society.”
“In the case of Galway, it will be €5,000 and in the Minister of State's own constituency, I do not know if he has mentioned it to his constituents, but renters are going to pay roughly €3,500 extra per year in rent because of this Bill. Has the Minister of State told his constituents that?”
“This single individual cannot go home and had to move into a supported accommodation, but is being asked to leave that supported accommodation after eight months. Where does that person go now? There were 1,800 people ahead of him or her on the housing list. The person works and does all the right things but cannot afford to rent or buy a home or get a mortgage. It is depressing for young people. I would not like to be a young person trying to make my way in the world right now, because of the challenges. Like I said, setting up a family or even just trying to survive independent of your parents is becoming increasingly difficult. The new renters in new tenancies will be facing potential rent increases in the order of 20%, 25% or 30%. That is what their increase in rent will be over a year.”
“They are struggling. They cannot have children because they cannot afford to do so. They have only one room. Where are they going to keep the second or third child? They do not have the room. The cost of childcare has gone through the roof as well. Where are people expected to find all of this money to pay for the costs and set up a family home? It is nearly impossible. If people are on middle-income wages, they will not have enough to pay rent in the high-rent rental areas. I know those and have documented them. They are also earning too much to go on the council housing lists. Where do they go then? They have to couch surf. They end up in family hubs. A person in recovery contacted me.”
“I was contacted recently by a couple who had got a notice to quit. They are each in or around 61 or 62 years of age. They are not going to be able to rent one of these new apartments the big companies are building. Where are they going to end up then? They are going to end up using homeless services and it will be a result of the Government's neglect of ordinary people and middle-income workers. We hear about the middle class. Middle-class people are being squeezed out, too. Their kids are not going to be able to afford to pay €500,000 for a new house and they are not going to be able to afford to rent. We will get to a point where we have young people with decent jobs and relatively decent incomes of, say, €40,000 a year, who are working hard, doing everything right and paying their bills. They are not able to save enough to buy a house.”
“The Government can allocate the funding to reconstruct the civic offices, but it cannot ensure that people, families and communities in the inner city have decent homes to live in. It is just not right. Ordinary workers are being driven out. A two-tier society is being created. We have the affluent down in Ringsend, over in Fenian Street or up in the new apartments in and around the south inner city while ordinary people cannot afford those properties. It is very frustrating to see the Government rushing this legislation through, ignoring the institutions its Members have been elected to and ramming through a Bill that will have a devastating impact on young people and old people. Senator Harmon mentioned this aspect. Older people are going to be hugely affected by it as well.”
“They will be subjected to living in local authority housing that is being neglected and forgotten about. Dublin City Council recently said that it was going to cost €400 million or €500 million to move the civic offices from the quays up to the site on Kevin Street and to develop that site. That is great. Happy days. However, how can the council manage to find the millions of euro required to develop the Kevin Street site when across the road 79 apartments are lying empty in the middle of a housing crisis? It can find the money to redevelop the Kevin Street site, but residents in flat complexes right across Dublin, including in Pearse House and Markievicz House, are left in completely unacceptable conditions.”
“People in the medical and educational sectors cannot afford it. Schools cannot get teachers and principals now because of the rents. Those individuals cannot afford the rents they are expected to pay. A teacher is not going to be able to afford a one-bedroom apartment down in the glass bottle site, where the rent is €2,500 a month, or just down off Fenian Street, where the rent sought is €2,700. More supply might come on stream in Dublin, but ordinary people will not be able to afford it. Teachers, guards and doctors will not be able to afford it. What use is bringing on stream all these units? More and more, it is creating a two-tier society, where if people have money, they will have accommodation, but if they do not have money, they will not have accommodation.”
“What will happen to them is that they will not be able to afford it because rents will be going up and up. Security of tenure is not going to be a huge factor for these students, but the cost will have a major impact on them. The cost of rents will be an issue for young students coming up to Dublin or going to Galway, for example, if they are in the midlands or Dublin and travelling. They are eating into the private rental market. They are going to be very much impacted by this change. The Bill's impact on third level education is one aspect of this issue. Up to a little while ago, I was on the board of a school in Rathmines. It has struggled to get teachers to come up and teach in the Harold's Cross-Rathmines area because they could not afford the rents. The same goes for nurses, doctors and pharmacists.”
“I meant to say earlier that when we look at students, we know the overwhelming majority of them do not live in the student-specific accommodation sector but in the private rental sector. Typically, they are seeking a lease for nine months and not 12 months. Come September, they are going to get hit substantially again. The vast majority of families in Donegal, west Cork and Mayo do not have access to specific student-built accommodation. There is some. I know UCD is building more. Each year, it builds a few more units, but it just does not meet the demand from students. Young people leaving west Cork, Donegal or Mayo are looking forward to going to college, getting a little bit of independence, meeting new friends, going out and enjoying the nightlife, studying, being educated and becoming independent.”
“The haste with which this Bill has been undertaken is disappointing. We talk about democracy and commitment to the institutions we are elected to, yet a Bill this important will go through the Seanad and Dáil and be in place for 1 March. I presume that is the objective. We have Committee and Report Stages, and they are all being rushed through. I suspect the Government is going to guillotine the Bill if it is not going through fast enough and if Members are talking, analysing and examining various aspects of it. This is the most substantial change to the regulation of the private rental sector in over a decade and the Government is pushing it through over a few weeks in the Houses. I could be wrong there, but my understanding is that it will be guillotined and there will be no respect. The Bill is going to have a massive impact.”
“Where do young people go? They are living at home in their 20s and want to get out, live independently and move on with their lives. What are they going to do? They have to stay at home. They cannot go out and rent. They are expected to rent. This will lead to homelessness because there are relationship breakdowns. Senator McCarthy is on the front line of dealing with homelessness and addiction issues. He has done amazing work to support people who find themselves in homelessness. Senator McCarthy and organisations like the one with which he is involved are picking up the tab for the failure of the Government to address the housing crisis. I will leave it at that. I have made a few points on which I ask the Minister of State to come back to me.”
“They want to get out and rent until they can save and buy a house. The current housing system is so broken that that is not achievable unless they win the lotto or get an amazing job that pays huge sums of money. Young people do not want to live at home. Children in Sandymount are mainly living in homes owned by the well-off, but they do not want to live at home forever. Just because their parents have a nice large house does not mean their child can afford one. They have to go out and rent, but cannot do so because of the failure of the Government to address the housing crisis. I hope I am not boring Senator Flaherty.”
“This is not directly related to the Bill, but public housing, including flat complexes, should be allowed to come under the auspices of the RTB because the neglect in the flats is absolutely shocking. People have nowhere to go but to the council, which will ignore them. Dublin City Council tenants and local authority tenants across the country should be allowed to go to the RTB to get some redress because local authorities do not respond to council tenants. They brush them off. Some 25% of all tenancies registered in 2025 were first-time tenancies. If these trends continue, within four to six years, the vast majority of private renters will be caught by the market reset rule. The Minister might address that. Young people do not want to live at home for the rest of their lives.”
“The budget last November left people with disabilities in difficulty. Where will they get money to pay rent? They will be down €400 and have been left short again. Government policy should be focused on cutting and freezing rents, not allowing them to rise even further. As I said, Lorcan Sirr, who is not a Sinn Féin representative but, rather, an independent analyst who has studied housing and housing economics for many years, said the Government is now trying to tell people that it will reduce rents by allowing landlords to increase rents. I mentioned that earlier. That stuck with me. It is difficult to understand. Market rent means whatever rent the market is charging at a point in time. The average length of a private tenancy is three and a half years, according to the RTB. The RTB has its challenges.”
“-----increased over the year. You are picking people's pockets. People cannot afford the cost of living as it is and now they will be expected to pay significant sums, depending on where they live in the country. For me and the people whom I represent and meet every day, that is how Ireland works now. It is one law for the wealthy and one law for inner city communities. Irish Institutional Property has free access to Leinster House, but somebody living in Pearse House, Ringsend or Kevin Street does not have that access, connection and past with the Minister for housing, other Ministers, Deputies and Senators. That is a real concern. Rents are already too high. As I said, we are in the middle of a housing and cost-of-living crisis. People are struggling to meet their weekly and daily costs.”
“In Dublin, currently it is €1,937 for an existing tenancy and that will go up to €3,516. Galway will be the most affected area. Monthly rent in Galway city is currently €1,409 a month and it will go up to €5,292. That is absolutely insane. In Limerick, Senator Collins's constituency, it is currently €849 and it will increase to €3,156 after that. I cannot see Laois there.”
“The Minister of State, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan, might pass that message on. I would appreciate that. It is unfair on the residents that the Minister refuses to meet them. We undertook analysis of the average cost of this market reset which the Government talks about. It will be almost a €3,000 increase reset in the first year. For instance, existing tenancies in Carlow town currently pay €1,050 a month rent. When this Bill comes into being, a new tenancy, which is a proxy for market rents, will be €1,355. Over a year, this total increase will be €3,660. In Cavan, in Senator Tully's constituency, the existing market rent is €963 and over 12 months there will be a total increase to €3,108. That is significant. In Cork, it is currently €1,238 and it will go up to €3,696. In Cork city, it will go up to €3,336.”
“They are both very expensive but a flat, in general, in the Dublin City Council area tends to be neglected and under invested in. On the Government investment, Pearse House residents put in a request because there was a regeneration plan. They got phase 2 of the regeneration plan in Pearse House. Residents were really looking forward to it. They have lived in shocking conditions for many years. They asked the Minister to meet them because the Minister had pulled the regeneration and said they were going to deep retrofit Pearse House. They have put in multiple requests to meet the Minister for housing and he has ignored them.”
“It has been derelict for nearly two years. At the same time, across the road, on Bishop Street, in the Iveagh Trust buildings, they are expected to live in absolutely shocking conditions. There is dampness and mould in the tiny flats. You would not be allowed construct them these days, although, having looked at the Irish Glass Bottle, IGB, site, the one-bedroom apartments there are not far off them, but that is another story. When you look at the conditions in the Iveagh Trust, there are so many boarded-up flats. In the middle of a housing crisis, they are empty. It seems insane that people are expected to pay these massive bills. They are expected to pay eye-watering amounts in rent, such as €2,500 for a one-bedroom flat or apartment on the glass bottle site. I am not sure what the difference between an apartment and a flat is.”
“The option is to stay at home because they cannot go out and afford to live in one of the overpriced rental units on the glass bottle site. According to the article, "Outside the capital, the most expensive region was Wicklow with a price of €454,000. The second most expensive was Kildare at €440,000", and "The least expensive was Donegal, where the price was €195,000." The way things are going, people from the inner city will only be able to afford to live in Donegal because they cannot afford to live in Ringsend, Sandymount, Pearse Street and Kevin Street. Even now, there is a site on Kevin Street. It was bought for some eye-watering multimillion euro sum. They were to develop it and build offices and apartments. They could not afford the financial model that they had paid out that money for and it is now derelict.”
“I suppose the Government will probably put out a press release stating that prices are not going up as fast as they were and looking for a clap on the back. The article continued: Residential property is now 178.8% above its low point in early 2013 after the financial crash. Prices are now 25% above their highest level at the peak of the property boom in April 2007. [...] Nationally, the median price of buying a home was €387,000 last year. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown in Dublin was the most expensive area at €680,000. On those sort of eye-watering figures for homes, most people will know where Sandymount is. It is not too far away. Walk for a kilometre from here and you will be in Sandymount. People and their children in Sandymount are expected to pay €680,000 for a home in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, such as in Blackrock. It is insane.”
“That is all very well but protection is only good if you can afford the rent and they will not be able to afford the rent. Sandymount is an affluent area. People would assume that it is a very wealthy area but young people cannot afford the rent. The average price of houses in Dublin was in the news today, with the headline, "Cost of buying a home in Dublin reaches €500,000". That is not according to Sinn Féin, but the CSO. An article states: The ... cost of buying a home in Dublin has now reached €500,000, according to the Central Statistics Office. Residential property prices rose by 7% nationally last year. It marks a slight deceleration compared to 2024, when the cost of buying a home rose by 8.7%.”
“Before it was popular, they were there with the football clubs and the bingo. The latter is still being organised. During Covid, many of the families who live in the community were working on the front line. There were working in hospitals, they were in these Houses cleaning, they were working in Tesco and they were delivering essential supplies. None of these families will be able to afford to buy in their own communities. They cannot pay €2,700 rent. That is what is happening. The Government has just forgotten ordinary working-class communities in the inner city. It is not only in Dublin. It is in Limerick, Galway and Cork. Inner-city working-class communities have been forgotten and this Bill shows that and highlights how forgotten they are. As I say, rents will go up and up. The Government will talk about protection for renters.”
“Beside that building is St. Andrew's Court, which the Government has been promising to regenerate, rejuvenate and redevelop for nearly ten years. It is still lying vacant in the middle of a housing crisis. Across the road from is the building to which I refer in which a one-bedroom apartment costs €2,500 or €2,700. It costs even more to rent a two-bedroom apartment there. That is what is happening in Ireland. There are the wealthy and there are the forgotten. Families in the inner city are being forgotten and pushed out because of policies such as those outlined in this rental Bill. How will families from Ringsend or Pearse Street ever be able to find homes? They have experienced decades of underinvestment in their communities. The community to which I refer has been there a long time.”
“What has happened? The Government is facilitating developers to come in and is allowing these units to be built, and the cost of them is absolutely insane. Very few people in Ringsend will be able to afford to rent of these one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. A household would need to have two Senators' salaries in order to be able to afford to rent a one-bedroom apartment at the glass bottle site. This is having a huge impact. Where will people go? They have to leave their communities. They have to move or they are living in overcrowded conditions on Pearse Street and Kevin Street or in Ringsend because they cannot rent properties. They cannot afford to buy or rent. Not too far from here, 500 m away, there is a five- or six-storey building where a one-bedroom apartment costs €2,700 a month. How can anybody pay that?”
“It is on the public record. The Government has been taken hostage by companies and organisations such as this, and they are ensuring that this legislation is put through. Lorcan Sirr said the Government is trying to convince people that it will bring down rents by allowing landlords to put up rents. That is the reality. I look at the glass bottle site in Ringsend where 3,500 or, possibly, 3,800 new homes are to be developed. The only people who will be able to buy or rent them are the really wealthy and really high earners. I went to the glass bottle site and had a look. Those involved with the site kindly showed me around. The rent will be €2,500 a month for a one-bedroom flat. There are people who have lived in Ringsend all their lives. When it was not popular to live there, they made Ringsend the great community it is.”
“The reality is that Irish Institutional Property, IIP, which, it is fair to say, represents the big companies, the vulture funds and the big developers, has brought this about. It has open access here, and I see its chairman, Pat Farrell, coming in and out. He has access to Leinster House. He and IIP have been pushing this proposal. It cannot be right that the head of one of these big institutional organisations has such open access to Government. Whether Ministers meet him, I do not know. However, it should be declared and should be made clear whether they do. What engagement has Mr. Farrell had with Ministers, backbench TDs and Senators? It is not healthy for society. Clearly, the Bill is something they want. They wanted this. As was said by Lorcan Sirr recently-----”
“I will make a criticism of the Bill. It is political criticism, and I ask the Minister State not to take it personally. I know the officials have put in a huge amount of hard work. Because the legislation is being rushed through the Dáil and Seanad, renters and the public are not being allowed to examine it and have a good long look at the ins and outs of it in any detail. This is being rushed through. It is the most profound change to the regulations of the private rental sector in a decade. The centrepiece of the Bill is the market reset proposal. This allows landlords to reset the rent to the market rate between tenancies. At present, a landlord can only increase rent by 2% to account for inflation. This change has been made at the behest of the big institutional investors to increase their profits.”
“I did not interrupt Senator Clifford-Lee. I ask her to show respect, please. We hear these MEPs talk about the horrors in Gaza - the genocide - but we do not see them doing anything about it. We see them supporting Ursula von der Leyen who has supported Israel to the hilt. That is not acceptable. MEPs should not do that. The Government talks about the occupied territories Bill but it will not pass it. It is blocking the Bill. The least the MEPs can do is be clear. If they support Israel, they should say they support Israel. They should not talk out of both sides of their mouths.”
“Seven Irish MEPs, including three of the MEPs present, supported Ursula von der Leyen and rejected a motion of no confidence in her in July. Why did they support Ursula von der Leyen despite her support for and facilitation of genocide in Gaza? In many ways, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael MEPs think and hope that no one will notice that they supported a genocide enabler, Ursula von der Leyen, but we see them and we hear them talking about it.”
“-----sport and politics cannot be separated. Cut out the nonsense that sport and politics do not mix because they cannot be separated. I acknowledge the filing parties, which are: Irish Sport for Palestine; Scottish Sport for Palestine; Just Peace Advocates; Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor; and Sports Scholars for Justice in Palestine.”
“When Israel's snipers were shooting children in the legs in order that they could never play football again, Israel did not mind mixing sport and politics. When genocidal Israel was turning sports facilities into graveyards, it did not mind mixing sports and politics then. Let us cut out the bullshit that-----”
“Infantino and eferin are breaching FIFA and UEFA statutes and violating international law. They are ignoring human rights and reports and continue to act with impunity. The Irish Government has done nothing to challenge this. It is seeking to wash its hands of responsibility. Infantino and eferin co-operate with those at the highest levels of the Israeli and US Governments to facilitate the continued participation of Israel and settlement clubs. Members of the Al-Helal football club came to Ireland in 2017 and 2018. Those children who came here and played football in clubs across the country have been targeted by genocidal Israeli forces. Eight of Al-Helal's football players, young children, have been killed by Israeli forces. Israel does not mind mixing sport and politics so let us not keep pretending that sport and politics do not mix.”
“I also wish to extend my condolences to the family of Larry Butler. I knew Larry. In particular, I knew his son Lar. Larry was a great fun. He was a nice, genuine and kind man. I wish to extend my sympathies to his family and to his Fianna Fáil family. Irish Sport for Palestine has submitted a complaint to the International Criminal Court accusing the presidents of FIFA and UEFA of aiding and abetting war crimes against humanity in Palestine. Well done to Irish Sport for Palestine for doing this. Ireland must not play genocidal Israel. Infantino, the president of FIFA, and eferin, the president of UEFA, are accused of supporting Israeli football clubs based in illegal settlements. They are effectively subsidising occupation. Under Infantino and eferin, the policies of FIFA and UEFA legitimise settlements which facilitate apartheid.”
“They are a hazard on the road and a blight on many communities. I would like to hear what plans the Minister of State has to ensure sulky racing and urban horses are regulated and that the animals are treated fairly and properly.”
“Two weeks ago, a horse carrying a foal collapsed on the way to Ballyfermot after being used in sulky racing on Dollymount Strand. The horse was kicked and whipped to get it back up but it could not do so because it was exhausted and physically unable. These sulky horses are out on public highways, being driven recklessly and sometimes collapsing. That has a big impact. I am interested to hear the Department's view on sulky racing and urban horses. This is a threat to road safety and public safety. We hear owners of urban horses talking about how much they love their animals but there is not much evidence of that when we look at the condition of some of the horses and the way they are treated. The poor sulky horse, named Anne, that died two weeks ago is not the only example. Horses that were run into the ground have been found in ditches.”
“We can create all the laws we want but what we really need is enforcement. We have heard the mother of that poor child, Grace, who was murdered a few weeks ago speaking so eloquently and passionately about this. I welcome that the Government is looking to close the loopholes but that should have been done long ago. There should never have been loopholes in the legislation and scramblers should never have been allowed on the road network. Again, without enforcement, anything we do in here will be useless. It is really important to ensure there is adequate enforcement. Another issue that has come to my attention again, and which has been around for a while, is sulky racing and urban horses. This has an obvious impact on road safety.”
“I do not know where it all went wrong that I ended up in here. Yes, I was one of the children in that advertisement. It has been downhill for me ever since. It was one of the greatest advertisements ever.”
“If the game does go ahead – and I sincerely hope it does not – then the Israeli players who served in Gaza or played on teams which play on occupied land should be arrested when they arrive here for the war crimes in which they participated. The same applies to the supporters. Israeli supporters must be security screened to ensure that any IOF members who arrive here are arrested and charged in respect of the war crimes they committed in Gaza. Last year, young kids from Palestine and the West Bank,were looking to come here to play hurling and GAA. They were prevented from doing so by the Department of justice. The IOF participants in genocide who arrive here must be security screened to ensure that they have not participated in war crimes. They must also be dealt with in accordance with the law.”
“Poland refused to play Russia when Russia invaded Ukraine. Poland faced no consequences, so why would Ireland face consequences for refusing to play genocidal Israel? The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste need to stop pretending that football is somehow above politics. This view is utter nonsense and ignores the reality that exists. They need to grow a backbone and stand up to the normalisation of the Israeli regime by UEFA. Over 400 footballers were targeted and killed by Israel in Gaza. Israel turned many of the sports facilities there into graveyards, so it clearly does not see any issue with mixing politics and sport. Some of the children, footballers who were killed by Israel, did play football here in Ireland with the Al-Helal football club in 2017 and 2018.”
“Ireland has been drawn to play genocidal Israel in the Nations League. UEFA is ignoring and breaking its own statutes. It is hardly surprising it is doing that because world football is clearly corrupt. The FIFA president giving Trump a peace prize was bizarre. The Irish Government and FAI must decide if they will join the circus and ignore the genocide, apartheid and terror Israel inflicts on Palestinians each and every day. Alternatively, will Ireland make a principled stand? Will we be brave? The FAI's own membership looked for Israel to be expelled from European football. UEFA ignored the wishes of the Irish footballing community. The decision on whether to play should not be down to the players. If it is, then politics has failed to hold the institutions that are responsible to account.”
“It is just not acceptable. We need something to give renters some relief and some certainty. I know the Minister will say this Bill does give certainty but it does not. It increases rents and provides no certainty into the future.”
“This Bill is clearly another favour to investors, developers and big landlords. Everyone else is yet again being left to deal with the consequences. Renters have got absolutely nothing from this. No progress has been made since the crisis began. We desperately need legislation to freeze rents across this country, to provide relief to tenants, to get social housing built and to make existing housing available and affordable to renters and buyers. This Bill is a absolutely disgraceful legislation. I hope the Government parties eventually wake up to the disastrous failure of their developer-led approach to housing in this State. The Government says the market will solve the housing crisis. That is not the market's job but the Government's. The Government has failed. It has failed renters and communities right across the State.”
“Nowadays, this scheme is completely dysfunctional. It is nearly non-existent, with only a handful of properties available in Dublin for hundreds, if not thousands, of applicants. The reality is that successive Governments’ failure to invest in our permanent public housing stock has resulted in a broken social housing system that cannot meet demand, resulting in more pressure on the private rental market, which in turn is inflated by State subsidies like HAP. It really is hard to see any hope for people to afford to live in this city under this Government unless they are very wealthy. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have rammed through several Bills relating to the rental market in the past number of years, and every single one has resulted in ever higher rents and a worsening housing situation.”
“That is incredible. You would be lucky to even find a room in a shared apartment for less than €1,000 per month. Even then, you are likely to be living in squalor. A huge number of people in this city cannot afford to rent privately but are not able to access social housing. They make too much for social housing but not enough to get on the housing list. They are left in limbo. Even for those who qualify for social housing, the list is years or even decades long. We do not have nearly enough public homes to meet the need. For many people, their only option to get by is to live in their family home, potentially for decades, or to try to find a HAP property. It is worth remembering that the HAP scheme was supposed to be a stopgap measure to patch up some of the holes in our social housing systems.”
“According to the RTB, this Bill will result in an annual rent increase of over €3,600 per year for new tenants in Dublin city. The average monthly rent in Dublin is already €2,200 and this will allow landlords to increase this amount by hundreds of euro every month. How are people going to afford that? Private renting is already not an option for a huge number of people in this city. They have simply been priced out. If you are from the inner city, what hope do you have of renting a home in the area where you and your family have lived all your life? Renting your own apartment in the inner city would cost thousands. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment at the glass bottle site is just over €2,500 a month. That is absolutely insane. At an apartment block 500 yd from here, the rent charged for a one-bedroom unit is €2,700 a month.”
“This Bill is another attack on private renters, who have been completely neglected and taken advantage of by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. If this Bill is passed, thousands of people will be forced to pay higher rents at a time when families and workers are already struggling with the cost of living. We do need measures that will give tenants long-term stability but not in the way proposed by this Bill, which will result in higher rents for those starting new leases. Likewise, we do need to incentivise private investment in our housing system, but not in this way, which will only benefit unaffordable, elite-level apartments that are not available to the vast majority of prospective tenants. This Bill is deeply flawed from top to bottom and is not a step towards resolving the housing crisis.”
“The Government will have a position of getting rid of the triple lock, the Opposition - this side of the House - will have a view to maintain the triple lock, and there will be that debate. Ultimately, why is the Government so fearful of putting the question of getting rid of the triple lock to the people? Let the people decide by having a referendum. I ask that the Minister come here to have that debate and ask him why there will be no referendum on the triple lock.”
“We will never be a major military power but we have been able to exercise influence way beyond our size because of our reputation as peacekeepers and the dedication of our Defence Forces on UN missions abroad. The triple lock is a protection that ensures that when Irish peacekeepers are deployed abroad, it will only happen on the basis of international law and not in any kind of adventurism. We are clearly living in a dangerous and volatile world and Ireland's place in the world must be as a country that stands up for international law. At a time when we see international law being dismantled by the big powers, our military neutrality is centrally important and must be protected. If the triple lock were removed, Irish troops could be deployed to any situation that the Government of the day sees fit.”