Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-11
============================================================

Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

First of all, ní aontaím leis an Teachta. Is éard atá i gceist ag an Rialtas ná i bhfad níos mó tacaíochta agus cosanta a thabhairt do na daoine atá ag íoc cíosa faoi láthair. Sin bun agus barr an chinnidh atá déanta ag an Rialtas. I do not agree, fundamentally, with the Deputy. Again, this is being portrayed as the Government wanting to undermine renters. That is such a ridiculous assertion. The origins of this come from the Housing Commission. The Social Democrats' housing spokesperson spent about a year and half condemning the previous Government and this Government for not following through on the Housing Commission. The Housing Commission recommended that we permanently reform the RPZs. The Housing Agency came forward with recommendations to do that. The ESRI said we have to do it. Most economists agree we have to do it. Why? We have to get more supply into the rental market. If we do not, prices will continue to rise. The only effective way to moderate pricing in the rental market is to increase supply. The Government is biting the bullet and taking action here. Some would say it was too modest in terms of the supply side. The Opposition is dead set against any supply measures. It just wants the banning of rent increases. Just ban everything. Everything would then remain static. Prices would increase even more and we would have huge issues with supply. That is the fundamental difference between the Opposition and the Government. We want to sort out the housing issue.

---

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/2026-02-11/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:02+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-11