Sinn Féin has said the rent crisis is hammering a generation and it is placing people in horrible situations.
Mary Lou McDonald told the Dáil that in many towns and villages across the country there are now no places to rent.
Soaring rents and evictions were the dominant themes during questions from party leaders to the Taoiseach in the Dáil today.
The Sinn Féin Leader strongly criticised the Government housing policy which she said was failing.
"How are ordinary people expected to pay these rip-off rents and somehow still find money to pay soaring energy bills, big childcare fees and of course put food on the table?" she asked.
Sinn Féin leader @MaryLouMcDonald raises the issue of rising rents. "How are ordinary people expected to pay these rip-off rents and somehow still find money to pay soaring energy bills, big childcare fees and of course put food on the table?" | More: https://t.co/F59b2tU7P8 pic.twitter.com/zyj0sflnrE
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) April 27, 2022
She called on Government to cut rents through a €1,500 tax rebate for tenants and to impose a ban on rent increases.
While People Before Profit's Richard Boyd Barrett raised the difficulty facing tenants who are facing evictions from properties owned by vulture funds.
In response, the Taoiseach said construction has started on 35,000 new homes in the first three months of this year, which is the highest number since 2008.
He said the rent increases are worrying but they are linked to supply.
Micheál Martin insisted that there was a responsibility on all parties to help increase the supply of homes and to end the opposition to planning applications.
The Taoiseach said the Sinn Féin tax credit for tenants would potentially increase rents even more.
Rents for new tenancies nationally rose by 9% in the last three months of last year when compared to the same period a year earlier, new data from the Residential Tenancies Board and the Economic and Social Research Institute shows.
