Eoin Hayes
Dublin Bay South · Social Democrats · Ireland
“As this is my final time speaking, I thank the Ceann Comhairle and all of the staff in the Oireachtas, including the ushers in particular who take such good care of us and everybody who makes this place work so well, for all that they have done. I hope that they get a good and well-deserved break.”
“It seems only proper that this new united social protection system would do the following from a principled way: establish a shared prosperity and proper social protection supports to underpin a properly functioning economy and society; ensure that no individual is worse off in a united Ireland than they were under partition; and ensure t…”
“In a united Ireland, the Six Counties' economic future should be a prosperous one, and in that it has to be properly supported and transformed.”
“There are challenges in these principles, challenges of politics and reconciliation most of all, but there are practical considerations as well.”
“While the project of integrating these systems will be significant, it is imperative that we take the opportunities to create a better life for all, North and South, where people do not just survive but are given the means to thrive and contribute, and where a system of public services supports that.”
“In that vision, we will have to give people in the Twenty-six Counties and in the six the confidence that a united Ireland will work for all against poverty, unemployment and deprivation, and that we will challenge these scourges that are felt regardless of community or background, for poverty has no religion, unemployment no flag and exc…”
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“It is relevant, a Cheann Comhairle. In this book they start closing the borders and detaining people from one tribe going to another. They start saying the refugees are no longer valid refugees. They start digging their heads into the sand. I read fiction to try to escape the non-fiction of our work, but sometimes there are certain echoes in fiction that tell a really important story. There is a real question here about a Government and a State that are putting their heads in the sand as to their human rights obligations, even just on a human level. It does not necessarily need to be international law. It does not even need to be concepts of justice.”
“I thank Deputy Gannon for bringing forward this amendment. I am deeply concerned to listen to the contributions here and what is being put forward and proposed by this Government. The use of violence by the State - detention is a form of violence - should have a very high bar. It should be taken extremely seriously. I have very real concerns about not just the thoughtfulness that has gone into this but also the direction of travel and what it means for human rights and natural rights and the concept of justice in this State. To be light-hearted in my contribution, I am reading fantasy novels these days. There is a conflict between various tribes in this book I am holding. It is an international bestseller-----”
“It is important to acknowledge that we train many more GPs than we did previously, and I welcome the work done in workforce planning. A publicly driven system would also allow for the development of a national locum bank, which would improve working conditions for GPs, ensuring they can take their leave entitlements, including long-term sick leave. The current environment, in which GPs deliver services through small isolated organisations, means the loss of a GP, even temporarily, can have huge effects on the delivery of care locally. I thank my colleague Deputy Pádraig Rice for bringing this motion to the House. I urge the Government to support it.”
“The plans to introduce free universal GP care seem to have disappeared. This is in spite of it being identified as a core target within five years of the Sláintecare implementation phase. That means we should have had free universal GP care for every person in this country by 2022, four years ago. It is now 2026, and it is not even in the programme for Government. This means that we remain total outliers in a European context, where GP visits are mostly free or cost less than €10. A local GP noted to me this week that the current GP contract was developed in 1972. Since then, while remuneration rates for GP services have adjusted, the terms of service have not, with some areas of care - for example, antenatal care - being deprioritised financially versus others. We need an updated contract that aligns with modern clinical best practice.”
“When the former joint leader of my party Róisín Shortall founded the cross-party initiative that resulted in the Sláintecare report, there was a real sense that the ambition that people hope for but rarely see in the political system, a real effort to deliver a transformative change in healthcare, would be founded on enhanced State capacity and international best practice. While delivering such change might involve shifting timelines, one thing we should never shift is that ambition, which is why the Government's approach to implementing Sláintecare has been so disappointing. There is no sense of ambition in this Government in any area as it continues to rely on models which prioritise eligibility rather than rights and which fail to deliver the change needed in our healthcare system.”
“I also pay particular tribute to the teachers, schools and SNAs who take care of children with special needs so well, who go above and beyond, even if this Government is not willing to do so and even when resources are not forthcoming, and who do everything to help, even when the Government does not. In this vein, I implore both the Minister and the Minister of State not to pit schools, parents or differing conditions against one another for those resources. That would be, as it has always been, an unmitigated disaster for everyone involved. Please do better.”
“The Department's approach on reallocation of resources has been nothing short of scandalous, a truly dispiriting display of callousness, ineptitude and neglect. It has been well established in this Chamber and outside of it that the criteria for allocation of resources for children with special needs are not comprehensive enough. They are simplistic. They do not recognise the principle of equity in addressing each child's experience and, as a result, are deeply unjust. As my constituent said to me, inclusion without adequate resourcing is not meaningful and we are storing up the problem for a much bigger one in the future. I could not agree more.”
“I have a constituent who has a daughter with complex behavioural needs. She has severe ADHD and a mild learning disability. They recounted their story to me on Monday. It really drove home for me how much parents have to fight and advocate for everything for their children, the very real risk for too many families who are not equipped to do so and the subsequent gaps in how this Government and the State support children with special needs. In this particular case, it took nearly two years for early checks to be done on the child or for the child to get access to the CDNT in the area. It took another year to get involvement from CAMHS. This resulted in the family going privately for medication. All the while, the education supports were not forthcoming.”
“This can be contrasted with the success of individuals, particularly in the British market. I think of Jessie Buckley, who won a BAFTA, and writers like Sally Rooney, who was unable to receive her Sky Arts Award in person because of her pro-Palestine Action stance. I also think of musicians like Jazzy, Reggie, Damien Rice and Hozier. At the summit we are talking about, the Taoiseach said he needed to reflect on developments in the wider European and international context that affect all of our jurisdictions. I would like to hear about how the Taoiseach will support creative industries in Ireland to diversify in terms of trade with the UK and other countries and about what we can do with other countries within the British-Irish Council to support creative industries.”
“I thank the Taoiseach for his indulgence on this. The trade between Ireland and the UK is worth about €100 billion, while our total trade is worth about €350 billion. The gross value added of our creative industries is about €8 billion whereas that of the UK's creative industries is £124 billion. That is a little disproportionate in light of our population. It is no wonder. I have some concerns about our investment in the arts more generally. The basic income scheme is capped at 2,000 applicants and there are certain restrictions on people reapplying. As the Taoiseach will know, The Complex in Dublin was closed. There are also planning permission conflicts between hotels and nightclubs and the word "arts" has been removed from the name of the Department of culture.”
“More breathtaking is that these issues of drainage, sewerage systems, water delivery, flood defences and mitigation are solved problems. In fact, they have been solved for millennia all around the world, yet for some reason they seem to be consistently beyond this Government.”
“When I was campaigning in the local elections two years ago, people at so many doors I knocked on reported flooding issues in their back gardens that I noticed a pattern of poor drainage around the River Poddle, indicating an increased flooding risk. I raised that with Dublin City Council and it seemed like everybody was passing the parcel on the issue. At the general election, a similar pattern seemed to emerge around Ringsend Park. Furthermore, there is only one flood insurance provider available in Ringsend, Irishtown, Sandymount and Merrion in my constituency, as I have raised several times, including in the last week. The breadth of issues with water infrastructure and flood prevention, mitigation, management and recovery are breathtaking in a country known for its rain.”
“This has devastating impacts on homes and livelihoods across the country and in my constituency of Dublin Bay South. Our responses to climate change need to take a variety of forms. Unfortunately, it is likely that we will have to adapt. Nature will react, as it always does, but I have severe concerns that our Government is far behind. Nature-based solutions are often not even remotely a part of the response. We have chronic issues in sewerage and drainage capacity. Often, storm drain systems are interconnected with sewerage systems and result in overflows into our waterways, as in my constituency at Sandymount Strand, which I have raised several times. The ownership of the water systems is often confused between Uisce Éireann, the local authority and private owners.”
“I extend my sincere sympathy to everybody who has experienced flooding in the past few weeks and even going back months. In my constituency, Ballsbridge, Rathfarnham, Terenure and many communities and houses were affected by the bursting of the banks of the Dodder. It was particularly devastating for those people and families. I have seen the devastation that flooding causes to people's homes and livelihoods. It can be an extremely traumatic event for people, so they have my deepest sympathy in this respect. On average, it rains approximately every other day in this country. Some parts of the country, like Dublin, are a little drier than others. The years are getting wetter with the advent of climate change. There is no better example than our most recent January, which was one of the highest rainfall months on record.”
“The Government is now forcing disabled people to take to the streets on 28 February to ask for their basic needs to be met. Will it reverse this disastrous budgetary oversight as a matter of urgency? Will the Tánaiste condemn or at least disavow the hurtful and disgraceful comments of the Minister for Social Protection?”
“The Tánaiste is the Minister for Finance and the leader of Fine Gael. In the budget for 2027, there is a promised cost-of-disability payment. In budget 2025, there was a disability support grant of €400 but in budget 2026, there was no one-off payment. In fact, disabled people are €1,400 worse off as a result of the budget in 2026. Many disabled people have said they are choosing between heating and eating. One person with a spinal injury told me that since 1999, he does not remember it being this bad. When my party and I raised this and called for a modest emergency winter payment of €400 last month, we were met with derision by the Government. Disabled people were accused of being alarmist, misleading and dangerous.”
“Can the Taoiseach provide an update on the operational capacity of the regulatory authority, the timelines for commencement orders or further legislation from the Minister and make a promise to these families that the protections afforded to them, including the valid recognition of mother-child relationships established via surrogacy under this Bill will be enacted by the end of 2026, as a matter of urgency?”
“The previous Government enacted the Health Assisted Human Reproduction Bill 2024, nearly two years ago. Vital components of that Bill have not been commenced, leaving families who have used surrogacy in a vulnerable state of limbo without any of the vital legal protections that the Bill sought to give them. I understand that the Assisted Human Reproduction Regulatory Authority was established last year, but there has been no announcement regarding the appointment of a CEO or other staff or any further necessary legislation.”
“It was ahead of its time not just in considering the concept of enabling workers to engage fully but also in how the company's operating practices and culture supported people to do their best work and attracted exceptional talent regardless of geography. As a Dublin-based company, we were able to hire people in Cork and Galway and even in the far reaches of Donegal. There is an exceptional opportunity to use remote work to re-energise rural Ireland, ensuring that high-income labour opportunities are more equally distributed and that the associated spending power becomes part of local communities. I urge the Government to consider this Bill as a matter of utmost importance for workers, companies and the communities we are trying to build.”
“The Bill does give due regard to this, despite what a backbench TD might write in The Journal , including the capacity of the remote location to support the carrying-out of tasks and duties as required by the employer. However, it goes further than the current legislation in empowering workers contribute positively to their work culture while engaging in remote work. During Covid, I was working with a startup in health technology doing really interesting things in connecting people to remote care. This company had taken seriously the question of enabling people to work remotely for several years before Covid.”
“I thank Deputy Lawlor bringing this important legislation forward. I have never been very good at striking a good work-life balance, it has to be said. I doubt many in this Chamber are. I have always been a hard worker, perhaps even obsessive, but one of the great things about being human is the opportunity to grow and evolve, to develop the ability to rest and experience joy, to cultivate relationships and to enjoy life to the full. That is what this Bill is about. There are, of course, jobs where remote working is not possible, for example a TD, and there are parts of jobs or specific times where in-person collaboration is paramount for the task at hand.”
“I welcome it, but it is not this. It is not a Bill to accelerate some of the highest rents in Europe in one of the countries with the highest concentration of institutional international capital landlords anywhere in the world. We saw what happened to the country the last time Fianna Fáil gave rushed gifts to foreign financial investors. In case the Minister has forgotten, it did not end well, for the country or his party. I fear the same will happen again as a result of this Bill and the Government will have sacrificed another generation on its altar of greed.”
“The rush of this legislation, with the guillotine in mere hours from now, reminds me of that bank guarantee. Why is it that the great urgency of Fianna Fáil is always to pass legislation, enact law or make guarantees for international capital, but not for others? Where is the urgency for the emergency winter payment for people with disabilities? Where is the urgency to build offshore wind farms to bring down electricity prices? Where is the urgency for the needs of people and their children who are in poverty, while that poverty increases? Where is the urgency to actually build the homes? Why is that urgency only ever applied for international capital? There was a great opportunity in the renewed vigour of the Government to pass legislation this year, after one of the worst ever years for the passing of legislation.”
“Here I stand now, many years later, a Member of this House, and I cannot help but think back to that act of the Government, an act of Fianna Fáil like this one, and notice the similarities. History, unfortunately, seems to be repeating itself. Instead of assuaging the thirst of international financial capital by putting the Government's fiscal position on the line, Fianna Fáil is now proposing to offer them the entire renting population of Ireland, including every young person starting out, every divorcee who had to move out, every foreign multinational worker who came here for a good job and finds a disproportionate amount of their income going to landlords, and every older person who for one reason or another does not own their home.”
“The Bill was only introduced to the House last week and is being rushed through this week at the last minute and I kind of wonder why. About 18 years ago, I was in college. I was renting a room for approximately €100 per week, which at the time was expensive. It was a nice place and I had a very nice landlord. It was September 2008. I distinctly remember hearing about another rush by the Government of the day to pass laws that would change the face of this country. I am, of course, talking about the bank guarantee, which plunged the country's finances into total ruin in an effort to appease international markets and international investors and bondholders.”
“Another, not far from here, described the townhouse he lives in as having "five rooms, nine so-called licensees living in it, including me and my roommate who are sharing a twin bedroom paying more than €650 per person per month with no bills included". Most critically, a refrain I hear from constituents - and this is important because these are people who would consider voting for Fianna Fáil, but will not - including homeowners, tenants and even some small landlords, is that they ask the Government to please stop letting vulture funds and investment companies buy houses and apartments. I listened yesterday in this Chamber as the Tánaiste and leader of Fine Gael defended that practice still occurring despite the overwhelming public opposition.”
“Last January, we received notice that the owner was selling the building and we would be issued with termination letters, which arrived a few months later. These also stated the building was being sold and that the tenancy termination date was 10 December 2025. Yesterday, my former housemates and I received notice that our old apartment was being rented again and the rent was going from €1,480 to €4,400 per month. I have also received a considerable number of emails from constituent tenants concerned about the cost of renting in Dublin and in my constituency. One simply said there is nowhere to live, no matter how much you earn.”
“Another constituent who works in the public sector is in her middle years and has recently been evicted. She noted the reasons: The reason behind my eviction is obvious. Our current rent is too low, €1,100. I think what makes the whole scenario even more ironic is that the result of my work in the public sector is in fact extremely beneficial for the Government and the country. While I am finding companies that are non-compliant regarding their tax matters and getting them to pay what they must to the Exchequer, I am being let down by the State and I do not think there is any exaggeration in saying that. A third constituent said the following about being evicted from a tenancy only to find the place relet at nearly three times the rent. I lived in an apartment in Sandymount for six years. I moved in in August 2019.”
“I want to be clear that I have only ever had good landlords, people who were kind, efficient, kept good homes and were fair. However, my story is not representative. There are too many stories to count in my constituency and among my generation of unscrupulous actors in the rental sector who have exploited those without homes for their own greed. I will quote some of those who are renting in my constituency. On the question of security for tenants, one constituent said to me: There is very little security for renters and the laws meant to protect tenants do not seem to be enforced in reality, [which is a real question for this Bill]. There is no long-term certainty for tenants even though generations of families rent long term. If tenants can simply be asked to leave after five or six years, people are left worse off every single time.”
“I thank all the Deputies who submitted amendments to this Bill. I have to agree it is a terrible Bill. The Minister said he is solving the housing crisis. I do not think anyone buys that. I do not think anyone out there buys that. I do not think the electorate buys that at all. The Minister and the Government are failing, like every Government before it. I find it scurrilous that he would accuse Opposition TDs, when they are giving scrutiny to a Bill he has introduced, by saying it is spaghetti words or that they are looking for social media clips. That is disgraceful and the Minister should withdraw that comment. I rise today to speak for renters, who, although they make up 30% of the population, are seldom heard in this House or in our public conversation. I am a renter. I have rented my entire adult life.”
“It is time the Government stopped using the excuses of EU regulation or the insurance companies not doing enough or flood defences having to take care of the risk and get on with the responsibility of protection for the coastal communities that need it in terms of reinsurance schemes. People know what climate change means. It was mostly riverside communities affected in recent weeks, but coastal communities know that they will face some of the most extreme challenges in the future. Will the Minister of State illuminate whether his comments to the Business Post were accurate, whether the Government is considering a State-backed scheme and whether that is something that it will be delivering over the coming weeks and months?”
“The residents of Sandymount, Ringsend, Merrion and coastal communities across Dublin cannot afford another disaster and delayed action from the Government. A Financial Times article from last year and University of Galway's studies have noted that Ireland's coastal cities face huge risks during future storms. Sandymount would have been submerged in approximately 5 m in Storm Éowyn if a high tide occurred at the time. It is time for reinsurance models that include not just businesses but also people's homes to protect people's lives as well as their livelihoods.”
“Government cannot interfere with the provision or pricing of insurance or direct as to what cover is provided is reinforced by the EU framework for insurance solvency II directive. Apparently, the State can after all get involved in reinsurance schemes. From the outset, I had issues with the Government's position because the solvency II directive allows for general price controls. Many other countries have done it. Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros in Spain, Caisse Centrale de Réassurance, CCR, state insurance providers in France and even VHI here in Ireland are exempt from the directive. Is it Government evasion and a lack of ambition at play here and not regulatory constraints?”
“Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. With respect, I am not asking about flood defences. I am asking about the reinsurance scheme and a State-backed reinsurance scheme. The article I referenced stated: "Businesses and homeowners within certain pockets of Dublin, such as along the River Dodder, where several flood defence schemes have been developed in recent years, remain unable to obtain insurance." This is a real issue. In the letter the Minister of State sent to me last year, he said: In terms of the provision of flood insurance, please be aware that this is a commercial matter for insurance companies based on an assessment of the risks they are willing to accept.”
“In June of last year, I asked the Taoiseach for a Government policy on a flood reinsurance scheme. He said that insurance companies have to do more. The Minister of State, Deputy Troy, corresponded with me on the issue. I thank him very much for that. Essentially, he said a State-backed scheme was impossible in a market like Ireland. Imagine my surprise to read his announcement for businesses and not residential properties last week in the Business Post saying: "It's fair to say that it will require State backing". Will the Minister of State establish the Department's position on flood reinsurance schemes?”
“Finally, I raise the case of the family of Ms Oyekanmi who travelled to Ireland from South Africa three years ago with her three children in a well founded belief that she would meet the test for asylum but has now been served with a deportation order. Judging by the numerous emails I have received from our constituents - their neighbours in Dublin Bay South - this family has had a positive impact and their departure will be a significant loss to their community. If indeed the Government believes the asylum process has been operating too slowly, it is only right to acknowledge it by giving that family permission to remain.”
“Let me clear, if you are an immigrant or not, you will find me and my party in your corner. If you are languishing in emergency accommodation, your childhood bedroom, an extortionate and precarious rental situation or on a hospital trolley or if you are in need of disability care or have been plunged into poverty by this Government and every one preceding it, whether you are an immigrant, your parent is or you have lost count of how many generations were born in this land, you will find an ally in me and my party. Human rights are for all of us. They are a commitment to our shared humanity. They recognise we all get hungry, we all need a warm bed, we all seek to breathe free in a country where we can be our best selves and part of a society that supports and celebrates us. Human rights are sacrosanct.”
“I do not see how any qualified barrister or solicitor in this House could possibly countenance such a vote, without also saying that legal principles, jurisprudence and their constitutional obligations do not matter. That this House, the primary legislative body in the country, which is full of lawyers, would pass a Bill it does not know the principles of, knowing it is likely stripping people coming to this country of their constitutional and natural rights - you could not make it up. This House is being given days to inspect a Bill with few basic definitions, which the Department has had years to create. A Bill that affects fundamental rights without adequate consideration is a level of Executive overreach I thought I would not see in this House and I am gravely concerned by it.”
“There is no clarity about who will provide it, what qualifications will be required or what standards will apply. Importantly, if this legal counselling is incorrect, it will be far more difficult to reach the correct decision later. Second Stage of the legislative process in this House is about the principles of the legislation. Committee Stage is not designed to introduce entirely new substantive measures that affect liberty, family life and core access to justice. That means the entire legislative process is being sidelined today in an effort to force backbench Government TDs to approve the principles of a system that affect fundamental rights and liberties and issues of natural justice without seeing the protections that make it lawful.”
“This Bill has many shortcomings, many of which we do not even know about. Many of the core tenets and policies of this Bill have not yet been published, which is an extraordinary situation for a Minister for justice to introduce. Such a practice reduces legislative scrutiny and proper accountability by the Oireachtas and is highly concerning. Core policy choices that have been deliberately left out of the Bill as published include family reunification, reception conditions, key detention safeguards and age assessment standards. All were raised in the pre-legislative scrutiny phase and many were in the general scheme. They are now being parked for later amendment. The term "legal counselling" is mentioned in the Bill and is never defined.”
“In the late 19th century, a young man left his native east Clare and climbed aboard a ship bound for the United States. When he arrived, he was unvetted and of military age but met no restrictions to his entry. He went on to become a butcher at Macy's in New York city and was naturalised as a citizen in Manhattan in 1899 at the age of 34. A copy of that certificate hangs in my office. That man was my great-grandfather. He returned in the early 1900s and bought and built the farm in Limerick where my father was born and grew up. In this context, I cannot stand here in good conscience and tell the Minister that the restrictive turn he and the Government have taken on immigration is to the benefit of the State, the people who live here or the people who want to come here.”
“They know someone is misleading them. They know it is not disabled people, renters, those punished with vulture fund mortgage interest rates, climate activists or us in the Opposition. They know who is doing misleading and they know it is the Government.”
“Everyone else, those who have a different life experiences or do not agree with the Government measures, are tarnished by words from this Government of being "alarmist" or accused of being "dangerous and misleading", as they were last week. In an age of misinformation and disinformation, this Government has proven itself to be the most adept king of spin. Disabled people are not choosing between heating and the food according to the Government, even when they tell us that they are. Instead, they are, as one disabled person put it, perceived as liars. The Government touts progress in housing while new records in homeless numbers are set every quarter. The Government says it is pumping billions of euro into capital in energy development and yet all offshore wind farms in this country lie idle. The people of this country are not fools.”
“This is a damning indictment of how this Government has left too many behind. As my colleague, Deputy Cummins, said last week, the Social Democrats put forward a measure for a modest emergency winter payment for disabled people to help the most vulnerable population in the State with this cost-of-living crisis. We were met not just with resistance from the Government but outright disdain. What this Government is crafting is a society with a tale of two cities - one for those who are doing well, who have benefited from this Government and which caters to developers and special interests and one for everyone else.”
“What is not often reported are the extreme levels of costs in Ireland relative to our European peers. We have the highest electricity costs in the EU, the second most expensive food prices in the EU, some of the highest rents and mortgage interest rates in Europe and no public model of childcare. Our exceptionalism in how we rip people off in this country is unparalleled. What was the Government's response? It was a budget for this year that increases poverty, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office, and leaves disabled people €1,400 worse off than they were last year, according to the Irish Wheelchair Association, driving an exceptional level of need among households. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul reported the highest ever demand for its supports among the impoverished.”
“I echo the other Deputies' thanks to Deputy Healy for bringing forward this motion. It is very well written and comprehensive. It articulates a lot of what is wrong in the country right now and the cost-of-living crisis. I attended a conference late last year, hosted by the European Council on Social Rights, on the cost-of-living crisis. At that conference, I and many others heard that the bottom 20% of households are the most vulnerable to cost increases. Cost inflation for that cohort in Ireland is at about 5%, nearly twice the rate of annual inflation, far beyond the social protection increases in budget 2026 and one of the highest in Europe. Core to this question of the cost of living is what the components are. They are energy, food, childcare and housing - the list seems endless.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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?”
“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.”