Tá tuarascáil eile foilsithe inniu a thaispeánann an teip iomlán ar pholasaí tithíochta an Rialtais. Taispeánann sé go gcaithfidh an Rialtas cosc a chur ar arduithe cíosa, cíos míosa a chur ar ais i bpócaí íocóirí cíosa na tíre seo agus tithe sóisialta agus tithe ar phraghas réasúnta a thógáil ar scála.

Today there is another report that shows the disaster of the housing plan. It is a plan that now lies in tatters, with renters being fleeced and rents double-digit increases in counties right across the State. In case the Minister is not aware, since he took office and in the last four years, rents have increased by 30%. What does that mean for the average renter? It means that the average new renter has to fork out an additional €4,500 to the landlord each year, compared to when the Minister took office. It is not just new tenants who are seeing massive hikes in rent. It is also existing tenants.

The crisis is impacting renters in every county across the State. In Donegal, rents for new tenancies have gone up by a staggering 23% in a single year. In County Clare, they have gone up by 19%. In Wexford, there has been a shocking 24% increase in the past year for new rents. Today's report from the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, shows that rents are continuing to spiral out of control, with new rents increasing by an average of 11% across the State. Is it any wonder that so many of our young people have to leave their homes and families for better opportunities elsewhere? The Government’s housing crisis is putting huge pressure on workers, families and young people. The rental sector is clearly in a crisis and the renters are the victims. This is happening under the watch of the Minister and the Government.

The Minister continues to say, and we have heard Members of Government tell us, they have turned a corner in relation to the housing crisis, but renters have reached a dead end. Renters have reached a dead end. In these reports, we can see the real lived experience year after year in relation to what is happening. Things are going from bad to worse.

I am sure that in his response the Minister will speak about the 2% cap on rents in rent pressure zones, but existing rents have increased by more than 5% in 19 counties, including in Dublin where they are more than 4%. This sharp increase provides growing evidence that landlords are breaching the 2% cap on rent increases.

Does the Minister believe that landlords are breaching the 2% cap on rent pressure zones? If so, what is he going to do about it? He has done nothing so far. Workers and families desperately need relief. Those who are renting are trapped in an unaffordable rental system, while workers and families should qualify for social and affordable housing. However, those supports are also stuck in the private rental sector, putting more pressure on the system.

Sinn Féin’s solutions are twofold. First, we would protect renters by banning further rent increases for a period of at least three years, while putting one month’s rent back into renters’ pockets. Second, we would dramatically increase the supply of social, affordable and cost-rental homes. The fact is that the Government is not meeting its own abysmally low targets for council houses, cost-rental homes and affordable homes and these are targets that everybody knows are far too low to begin with.

I ask the Minister if the penny has finally dropped in Government Buildings? There has been yet another damning report from the RTB that the Government’s housing plan is failing renters. Does the Minister agree that we need to protect renters and ban further rent increases for a period of at least three years? Does he agree that the Government is failing to meet its housing targets for social, affordable and cost-rental homes, and that those targets need to be significantly increased and delivered on? Will he support Sinn Féin’s solution to protect renters and increase supply? Will he ban rent increases for the next three years?

I thank Deputy Doherty very much for raising this issue. The report to which the Deputy refers from the RTB is just the second such report it has published. It is the rent index report. It is good to have definitive data from the RTB in relation to rents associated with actual tenancies. That gives us some very valuable information as a Government and Oireachtas in terms of the policy framework and the decisions that we make on an ongoing basis.

On the point of the RPZs, this report is very clear. The Deputy will know that the report itself is not a barometer of compliance with the RPZ legislation, because it captures all tenancies. Tenancies that are outside of the RPZ restrictions across the country are also accounted for within this report, so it was never designed to be a measure of that.

However, what it does show is that rent levels for the existing tenancies are approximately 18% below rent levels for new tenancies. Existing tenancies that are being renewed on an ongoing basis represent the bulk of the market. In this particular report, approximately 47,000 existing tenancies are captured that were renewed in the third quarter of last year compared to 14,000 new tenancies that were registered within the data set. Therefore, the vast bulk of the tenancies that are recorded here as part of this report represent the renewal of existing tenancies. That shows a much lower level of increase in the actual level of rent for those existing tenancies that are being renewed. Again, I repeat that this is not a report that is measuring the effectiveness of the RPZ legislation. That is very clear when you read the report itself.

On the question of compliance with the RPZ legislation, that is a statutory function of the RTB and it is active in that regard. There have been, if you look through their website, approximately 160 sanctions over the last number of years and approximately 80% of those relate to breaches of the RPZ rules. Where breaches are taking place, that should be reported to the RTB, which will carry out its enforcement work in the normal way.

Fundamentally, rents are continuing to rise because there is a mismatch between supply and demand. That is the reality. Yet, when you look at the activity rate, we are now unquestionably making very significant progress. There is real momentum in home building across the country. Some 32,700 homes were built last year. That was a 10% improvement on 2022 and it was well ahead of the Housing for All target.

Let us look at the construction commencements that took place last year. Last year, there were approximately 32,800 new homes where construction commenced. This figure is up 22% on the number of commencements in 2022. There was a particularly strong finish to last year; there were almost 9,000 commencements in the fourth quarter of last year. This figure was up by approximately 50% compared with the same quarter in 2022.

I refer to the Deputy’s question and proposal to freeze rents for a number of years. When I look at the data, of the 32,700 homes that were built last year, there were more than 11,600 apartments, most of which are for the rental sector. That funding is primarily private capital. The State is playing a role, but much of it is private capital and institutional capital. I have no doubt that if we were to adopt Sinn Féin’s policy, it would impact the supply of new homes, in particular, the supply of rental accommodation across the country, and most particularly here in the city of Dublin where those apartments and that supply is most acutely needed.

I genuinely feel for the Minister in his trying to spin what is a terrible, terrible report. This report spells out in clear evidence to all of us that the Government’s housing policy is completely in tatters. New rents have gone up by 11% in the last year. That means that new rents, compared to the last time the RTB did this report, which was a year ago, are up by €1,960. This is on the Minister’s watch.

The Minister speaks of existing rents, but in some cases in many counties existing rents have gone up by the double digits. Cavan has gone up by 12.5%. Leitrim has gone up by 7.4%. Longford has gone up by more than 10%. Roscommon has gone up by 9.5%. Waterford has gone up by 9.4%. It is not just new rents, but existing rents. Renters are being fleeced and this is on the Minister’s watch. He continues to spin. He speaks of supply. Supply is part of the answer, but the Government has failed to deliver on its own targets for affordable and cost-rental houses.

That is a blatant fact. Supply is not the only answer. The Government also needs to ban rent increases for the next number of years. It needs to make a decision on whose side it is on. We are very clear in Sinn Féin that we are on the side of renters. We do not stand by these runaway rents and a Government that is allowing this to happen while families are being crucified and renters are being locked into an unaffordable system.

If we adopt Sinn Féin policy, the supply of new homes will fall. At the moment, we need at least €13 billion to €14 billion of capital to build in excess of 30,000 homes a year. The State is providing €4 billion to €5 billion of that. We are likely, over the period ahead, to revise upwards the housing targets in Housing For All. That will mean much more capital is needed, perhaps up to €20 billion a year, on average, over the next number of years to build the homes that we need. Sinn Féin is seeking to create an environment that is unfriendly to that investment, that will result in that investment stalling, and that will, ultimately, impact on the supply of homes.

Ireland is an outlier in that construction is increasing. Looking across the EU, in most countries construction is falling but in Ireland it is increasing because the demand is there and because the Government is working collaboratively with the private sector to create the right conditions to inject real momentum into home building, both houses and apartments, throughout this country. We will continue to do that until we bring supply more closely into alignment with demand. Ultimately, that is how we will deal with the issue of rising rents.

I want to return to the issue of renters' rights because today sees another damning report confirming the Government's failure in its basic duty to ensure all citizens and residents have a secure and affordable home. Today’s bad news comes from the latest report of the Residential Tenancies Board, and there is no explaining away the stark figures it presents. The report shows that renters are now being hit with rent hikes of more than double the legal caps in some rent pressure zones. Between quarter 3 of 2022 and quarter 3 of 2023, we see existing tenants suffering averages rises of 5.2% and new tenants seeing rental cost rises of more than five times the legal limits in rent pressure zones. In Dublin, my own constituency has a much higher than average proportion of households in rental so this is something that affects people across my constituency. Across Dublin as a whole, the average rent for new tenancies is now €2,113 per month, an increase of 10% year on year between quarter 3 of 2022 and the same quarter in 2023, and 18% more than the average rent for existing tenants in Dublin. Existing tenants pay, on average, €1,788 per month in Dublin, up 4.3% year on year. In Cork, the Minister's own area, new tenants now pay an average of €1,386 per month, an increase of 8.8% year on year, while existing tenants pay an average of €1,170 per month, an increase of 4.5%. Give that rent pressure zones cover so much of the country now, these figures show clearly that there is an issue with flagrant breaches of renting law. Rents should not increase in rent pressure zones by more than the legal cap and yet they are doing so.

A home is a basic right. The Government has a duty to ensure people are housed in secure and affordable housing, but these figures tell us the Government has failed in this duty. This failure is having devastating consequences. We are all well aware of this because we all hear from our own constituents about the serious effects of housing distress and the housing crisis. They are plunging people into poverty, harming their health and paralysing their ability to progress their careers or get on with their lives. So often people use words like "despair", "broken" and "frightened" to describe how high rents and a lack of housing security impact their lives. The Minister mentioned that Ireland is an outlier. We are an outlier in the lack of protections we give to renters and that is what is clear from the latest report from the RTB. When will these endless reports and the correspondence we get from so many people in housing distress cause a change in Government policy? When will the Government start building homes at the scale we need? I listened carefully to the Minister who said, "We are likely ... to revise upwards the housing targets". We in the Labour Party, more than a year ago, called for a target of 50,000 new builds per year to be set. Where is that realistic target from the Government? The Government keeps threatening and promising but we do not see it. When will the Government pass the Labour Party's Residential Tenancies (Tenants’ Rights) Bill, a constructive solution we proposed more than a year ago that would provide meaningful protections for renters stuck in unaffordable, insecure housing and that would mean Ireland would no longer be an outlier when it comes to real protections for renters?

The supply numbers are real numbers. Since 2020, more than 100,000 new homes have been built. More homes were delivered in four years than in the previous nine years combined, and that is the reality. Almost 33,000 homes were built in 2023.

The RTB has the statutory powers it needs in the enforcement of the rent pressure zone rules. It has the powers of investigation and has been given additional resources by the Government to carry out that work. It is active in ensuring compliance with the RPZ legislation. The report itself is very clear that it is not a measure of compliance with the RPZ rules. That is referenced multiple times in the report published this morning, which I read.

We are increasing the supply of all types of homes. At the end of quarter 3 last year, almost 4,000 affordable homes had been delivered, supported by the affordable housing fund, the cost-rental equity loan, project Tosaigh and the first home scheme. We directly supported renters in the budget by increasing the rent tax credit by 50% to €750 per renter this year, and for a couple the credit is twice that amount. We have made significant changes to the housing assistance payment which will secure and expand more tenancies. We have increased the discretionary rate from 20% to 35%, and single applicants will get the couples rate. We acquired about 1,700 properties last year, the vast majority of them tenants in situ. Again, this scheme is designed to support tenants who are at risk of being evicted.

I go back to the fundamental point, which is that rents are rising because demand is outstripping supply. We have a population that is growing. We also have a young population and we are continuing to attract international labour. People are coming here because of the employment opportunities and the quality of life in Ireland. As a Government we are doing the single most important thing that will make a difference, which is increasing the supply of homes.

Just last week I attended the annual conference of Home Building Finance Ireland, which was set up back in 2019. It has exceeded all of its targets and has provided funding approval of around €1.25 billion, supporting the construction of around 8,500 homes in 22 counties across Ireland. That is the kind of practical initiative that will actually make a difference, because for many builders and developers, access to funding is a key constraint. We will continue to work with them to increase the supply of homes. The State is now the principal actor in the housing market through all of the interventions we have made, including the LDA, Croí Cónaithe, and the various grants. We will continue to do more in that regard because we recognise the responsibility we have to increase supply and we are making progress.

The measures the Minister has described are simply not enough and I do not think anyone in government would dispute that. They are simply not enough to deal with the real levels of housing distress. The Minister speaks in the passive tense and refers to demand outstripping supply, but it is up to the Government to do something about that.

We are.

This Government has been in office since 2020. We need to see action on this. Week in, week out, we hear the Government dismissing constructive proposals from the Opposition. It dismissed restricting no-fault evictions, freezing rents, and the idea of linking increases to inflation. It dismissed increasing the new-build target to 50,000 homes per year years, but it has never explained why it was dismissing these constructive proposals that could make a difference. Instead, it resorts to explaining and re-explaining plans. It refers to ineffective measures like the renters' tax credit, which is only a drop in the ocean when we see the real figures on average rents. With respect, the plans the Minister has outlined are not working. The Government needs to take more urgent and ambitious action. I ask again; when will the Government increase the target to the necessary figure of 50,000 new builds per year? The Government has been promising to do this for months. When will the Government enact renters' rights legislation that will provide really meaningful protections for renters?

We are not going to dismiss constructive suggestions, wherever they come from across the House because we recognise that this is a challenge. We believe we are making progress as a Government and as a country in increasing the supply of homes but we have more to do. We are never going to deny that and we are open to constructive ideas and proposals from right across the House.

It is important to make the point that the targets are not a limit. The targets do not limit the amount of construction, either by the State or the private sector. The progress we are making is evidenced, not least in the mortgage market.

In 2023, first-time buyers accounted for 25,600 mortgage drawdowns, the highest level since 2007. I pointed to the momentum, which is actually accelerating. Nearly 9,000 units commenced construction in the last quarter of last year, almost 50% higher than the same quarter in the previous year. That gives an indication that homes are being built and homes are coming. That is ultimately the most sustainable way of bringing supply more into line with the demand that is growing.