On Monday night, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Labour, the Green Party and right-wing Independents all voted to raise rents on the poorest households in Dublin city. These are council tenants, AHB tenants, HAP and RAS tenants who do not even get any maintenance from the council and who are all set to have their rents increased from April. There are plans to do the same across the country. This is pointed towards in the Government's housing plan, including in South Dublin County Council. The rent is being increased for cold, damp, uninsulated and overcrowded homes. This is forcing families with adult children trapped in their childhood bedrooms to pay higher rents. Some 43% of council tenants and almost 60% of HAP and RAS tenants already live in poverty. These increases will put them over the edge. The Tánaiste could stop this. He could talk to his councillors across the country and tell them not to vote for these rent increases. The Government could properly fund our councils. If it does not, it will face a mass campaign of resistance to this. The issue of the rent hikes will become a central issue and the by-election in Dublin Central will potentially become a by-election about these unfair rent hikes.

I thank Deputy Murphy for raising this matter. These are always sensitive and important issues to try to get right. I know local councillors try to grapple with what the right approach is on this. I note that different parties, including some Opposition parties, have voted in different ways on this on different councils. I think the lead Opposition party voted one way on South Dublin County Council and voted a different way on Dublin City Council. I am not sure what the policy difference was in terms of why it voted in two different ways. We are trying to get the balance right. We are taking a number of measures to try to assist people with housing and poverty. We will continue to trust our councillors to monitor this on a case-by-case basis per local authority.