Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions Dail Éireann — 2026-02-26 ============================================================ Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow I have never been accused of having a craven ideology before. Our only policy objective in this coalition Government is to make sure we build more homes for our people to buy and rent and to make sure we deliver supply. Without properties, apartments and homes to buy or rent, every conversation we have in this House is interesting but academic. It is interesting but abstract if we do not build enough homes. The Housing Commission, which I am sure did not have any ideology either, as it had lots of different perspectives and backgrounds, said very clearly that there was a need for private investment in terms of getting to the supply. I make the point respectfully that it is surely not the Deputy's position that the only people who should be building apartments should be the State. Surely we see the benefit in private investment alongside an unparalleled level of State investment in housing. We are investing more than most European countries in housing supply, yet we know, as do the Housing Commission and everybody who has looked, that in and of itself will not be enough. It will not be enough to fix the housing emergency unless we also attract in others to add private investment funds. If we talk of ideology, we should be very careful we do not demonise that. We need a diversity of supply. We also need lots of different types of building and construction under way. I hope the Deputy would accept the points I have made in this House that the comments this morning on national radio regarding the 25% clarify there was never a position that was going to be in a year or, indeed, in two or three years. That was apparently a projection, according to the comment on the radio this morning, over ten years. I am not saying anyone did it intentionally but it has been done in such a manner that has caused fear and worry. Nobody is suggesting market rents are going to be reset at 25%; not the investment fund the Deputy quoted. That investment fund has clarified that this morning. It is important we make that point too. I have acknowledged, because it is the truth, that from March it will be possible for new tenancies to have rents set to market rate. I have also said, and it is only fair the Opposition also says this, that along side that there is a protection for the renter that is not there today, in that their tenancy is secure for six years and their rent cannot be adjusted beyond inflation capped at 2% for the next six years. That is a significant protection for people who rent a property. They know they are there for six years, there is an effective no-fault eviction ban in place and their rent is effectively capped at no more than a 2% increase per year. That is a significant package of changes. Yes, there are comments from all sides of the debate - the left, the right and everywhere - about how we could have done this or done that. Lots of different people have a different perspective. The Government has tried to arrive at a balanced point of view here, one that drives more people to invest because, by God, we need it - we need more homes and apartments built in this country - but also one that, alongside that, puts in place a very ambitious, comprehensive set of protections for renters that have not existed in this country before and have been warmly welcomed by many, including those in the UCD school of social policy. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-26/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:42+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-26