Lies, Lies and more lies

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday January 21, 2003 18:39 by Cathy Flanagan - Labour Party head_office at labour dot ie 17 Ely Place, Dublin 2 6784700

An article in Monday's Evening Herald claims that 'the Government has taken two key steps to curtail rent increases in the private sector'. This is totally misleading. Labour's spokesperson on Housing explains...

GOVERNMENT IS LYING ABOUT RENTS
IN THE PRIVATE RENTED SECTOR

Deputy Eamon Gilmore has accused the Government of lying to the public over rents in the private rented housing sector.

An article in yesterday's Evening Herald claims that 'the Government has taken two key steps to curtail rent increases in the private sector'. The article states that Minister Mary Coughlan has placed a 'cap on rents' and that the Private Rented Tenancies Board will have 'the power to adjudicate to ensure that rent increases are kept in line with market rates'.

Deputy Gilmore said that both of these claims are false. "Firstly, the Government has not put a cap on rents. I wish they would! They have put a cap on the amount of rent allowance which a health board can pay to tenants on low incomes. This means that the tenants will in some cases have to bear the full brunt of rent increases, and in other cases they will be denied rent allowance altogether".

"The Government is suggesting that by capping the rent allowance, tenants will be forced to 'shop around for better value'. This shows how out of touch this Government is with the reality of life for poor tenants. It is now very difficult to get a landlord who will accept tenants on rent allowance or indeed tenants with children. To suggest that by capping rent allowance, rents will come down is as ludicrous as trying to argue that if the Government capped the Old Age Pension, the price of the pint would come down", he said.

"The Private Rented Tenancies Board has to date been given no real power at all, because the Government has failed to introduce legislation which would establish it on a statutory basis. The long promised Housing (Private Rented Sector) Bill has still not been published ? two and a half years after the Report of the Commission on the Private Rented Sector", he added.