Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín TD has likened the government to a ‘dog chasing its tail’ in their attitude to the housing emergency.
Speaking today Deputy Tóibín said: “The government are set to introduce their rent pressure zone legislation tomorrow in the Dáil, they’ve said that opposition parties are supporting them in this, but they have not yet published the bill. From the botched attempt to appoint a ‘Housing Tsar’ to their consistent missing of housing targets and the confusion of the last ten days, its becoming more and more obvious to everyone that the Housing Minister and the government is in way over his depth here. The government in their poor communication and premature release oof half-baked rent plans effectively warned all landlords not currently in a rent pressure zone that they’d better jack up rents as a matter of priority before the legislation comes into effect. The RPZ Bill being tabled this week is an afterthought.
Deputy Tóibín continued: “The Minister for Housing has said he won’t be making any specific exemptions for students – and is deflecting responsibility for that to his party colleague in the Department of Further and Higher Education. Students will be hammered by the current proposals with landlords permitted to push rent up well beyond the 2% cap”.
“The government keep putting sticking plasters on the housing crisis, but even these plasters have holes in them. They need get the finger out and start building homes. Aontú are today reiterating our calls for a zero vate rate on the building of homes. Statistics released to us by the Minister for Finance show that shockingly the government are actually cashing in on the housing crisis and that they collected nearly €3 Billion in VAT on building materials and construction services last year – more than ever before! This is scandalous – the government should focus on making it easier to build or purchase homes”, concluded Tóibín.
