The latest daft.ie rent report was published this morning. The consequences of the Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil rent hike Bill are now laid bare. Rents have hit their highest level in 25 years and are increasing at the fastest rate since records began and evictions are at their highest level since the Famine. This is devastating for renters. The rent rule changes announced by the Government last summer and introduced on 1 March are a disaster. What these massive rent hikes mean in real terms is that in Dublin, renting a two-bed apartment will cost you an eye-watering €30,000 per year. In Galway city, where rents have shot up by 18%, a two-bed will set you back €27,000 in rent per year.
Is it any wonder that there is so much anger and despair among young families in Galway - people who are desperately trying to put an affordable roof over their heads? Who in God's name can afford these rents? Can ordinary workers, families or young people afford them? They do not have a hope. They do not stand a chance. How does the Government expect people to live? How does it expect young people to save for their own home? The Government has knowingly caused this nightmare with its rent hike bill. The daft.ie report calls it out in black and white. It states that "the ability to reset rents between tenancies appears to have led to a step-change in rents, with the largest quarterly increase in rents on record." This report includes only the first month of the Government's disastrous legislation, so renters will now be terrified that there is much worse to come.
I warned the Taoiseach that the Government's Bill would open the floodgates to massive rent increases but he refused to listen. In fact, he told me that I was wrong. The biggest corporate landlord in the country also told the Government.
They boasted brazenly to investors that the Government's legislation allowed them to jack up their rents by extortionate amounts but the Government pushed ahead, intent on lining the pockets of the corporate landlords, big developers and vulture funds and utterly indifferent to the consequences for renters, families and ordinary people. Today, however, the Taoiseach has nowhere to hide. We now see the consequences of his actions as plain as day, with record rents, record evictions, families with nowhere to go, young people forced to choose between paying crippling rent, moving back in with their families or emigrating, and stress, worry and panic. That is what the Government has done to an entire generation and it has done it deliberately, with its eyes wide open.
Tubaiste amach is amach is ea an Bille sin a bhfuil de thoradh air go bhfuil níos mó daoine á gcur amach as a dtithe agus cíosanna níos airde ná mar a bhí riamh. Thréig an Rialtas tionóntaí chun pócaí na dtiarnaí talún móire agus na gcreach-chistí a líonadh.
The Government has chosen to back big landlords and punish renters. It could have cut rents, banned rent increases and put a stop to no-fault evictions, but no. With its rent hike Bill, it chose to make life better for the corporate landlords and property funds, so they laugh all their way to the bank, while the lives of families, workers, students and young people are turned upside down. What has the Taoiseach to say today to those renters who were thrown to the wolves?
