Mary Lou McDonald accuses housing minister of gaslighting tenants

The Sinn Féin leader said she has 'never seen a government move so slowly or achieve so little'

Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald, said: 'It has never been more difficult for people to rent a home, buy a home or get a council home.'

The housing minister has been accused of gaslighting renters by promising protections while also "telling landlords they can jack up rents".

Mary Lou McDonald said that while young people are leaving the country due to struggles trying to rent and buy homes, the Government is offering little comfort or clarity. While the country is going through a housing and rental emergency, Ms McDonald said she has "never seen a government move so slowly or achieve so little".

The Sinn Féin leader said the Government has sought to blame everyone else for its failures including the Opposition, local councils and rent pressure zones (RPZs).

Ms McDonald referred to comments made by housing minister James Browne during an interview with the Irish Examiner where he said RPZs are "significantly inhibiting" the delivery of apartments in Dublin.

She told the Dáil:

What he actually means is that vulture funds are telling him that in order to invest they want to charge even higher rents.

The Government must provide renters with clarity on what changes Mr Browne has said must be made in the rental sector.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that "all of the established literature" has noted that in the long term RPZs are restricting the growth of supply in the private market. More private sector investment is needed with State investment set to reach almost €9bn by the end of the year while €20bn is required to reach the necessary housing targets.

What Sinn Féin really wants, Mr Martin said, is for things to remain static in policy terms "so that you end up not actually making the step change that is required on housing". "I have never seen an Opposition so bereft of ideas and so lacking in conviction on the housing issue," the Fianna Fáil leader said.

Successive governments have normalised their catastrophic failure when it comes to housing and homelessness, Ms McDonald responded. "This society is now so numbed to your failure that record numbers, 4,000 and 5,000 children in homeless accommodation, doesn't cause really a ripple in public conversation."

It has never been more difficult for people to rent a home, buy a home or get a council home, she said. Ms McDonald quoted figures from Daft.ie which she said show that rents are "climbing faster than at any point in the previous 20 years".

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Mr Martin countered with statistics recently released by the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB). These figures show average new tenancies at €1,680 and existing ones at €1,440 which Mr Martin said are "too high".

"We are under no illusions about that. Even those figures represented a decline in both rent levels from the previous quarter, Q3 of 2024, and continues the downward trend in the growth rate of rental levels observed since early 2023," he said.

 The fundamental issue is supply and this is a dilemma being faced by countries across the EU and western economies, but Ireland is doing more than most, Mr Martin said.