LAST UPDATE | 17 Jun

TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN lashed out at Labour leader Ivana Bacik during Leaders’ Questions today, telling her she did not “have the courage” to be in Government. 

The heated exchange came as the Labour leader accused the Government of “chaotic decision-making” in relation to rental regulation. 

Referring to the Government’s decision to extend Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) across the country, Bacik said: “Of course we support the extension of RPZs across the country, but not a hollowed out version of RPZs that offer no real protections for renters.”

In response to her comments, the Taoiseach said the Government’s actions will help increase the supply of rental properties. He then claimed that the Labour Party would not make “difficult decisions” to increase supply. 

“You will not support anything that in any way you perceive to be injurious to your electoral base or might cost you a few votes. That’s the prism through which you’re looking at our housing crisis,” he said. 

Bacik hit back:”I think anyone watching will be wondering when you’re going to take political responsibility for the housing crisis.

“You’re the Taoiseach, you’re in Government, your party and Fine Gael have effectively governed together for the best part of a decade, and yet you’re resorting to throwing critiques of the opposition for not building homes.”

The Taoiseach then said that he had “no difficulty” taking responsibility. 

“You’re the opposition, you say. You could have been in Government, you could have been a Government.

“You could have been a Government, but you didn’t have the courage,” he said. 

“You and many in your party didn’t have the courage,” Martin said, adding that he knows former Labour leader and TD Alan Kelly did want to go into Government, “to be fair to him”. 

The Labour Party walked away from Government formation talks in December last year after the general election. 

At the time, Bacik said it was because the policy gap between her party and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael was too large. 

She later told RTÉ’s Late Late Show that she felt that “the deal had already been done” between Fianna Fáil and the Regional Independents before government formation talks had concluded.

“We had very positive and constructive negotiations with Fine Gael, and there was a lot of commonality.

“When we went to Fianna Fáil, however, it was very clear that the deal had already been done with the Regional Independents and there wasn’t going to be any give from their side on our demands, on our policy program.

“And we know in the Labour Party how important it is, if you go into government, you must be able to deliver at least a critical amount of your programme,” she said. 

Rental regulation 

Leaders’ questions in the Dáil today focused on the Government’s proposed changes to how the rental sector in Ireland is regulated. 

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald accused the Government of implementing changes that will lead to rent hikes for tenants. 

She said the changes will be a “blueprint to boost the profit of the big boys and to screw over renters”.

“That’s your plan, and you do this during a persistent cost-of-living crisis, when people are hit with price hikes right across the board. Over the last four years, the cost of the weekly shop has skyrocketed by €3000 a year for many, many families,” she said. 

Likewise, Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore used her slot to criticise the Government’s changes to rental regulation. 

“You’ve been planning these rental reforms for months, and yet you made an absolute hames of them last week. Even your own Cabinet colleagues couldn’t make sense of them,” she said. 

“For the avoidance of any doubt, there was one simple thing that these reforms were to do, and that was to drive rents higher,” Whitmore said.

Defending the changes, the Taoiseach said reforms will enhance protection for renters and highlighted the fact that every existing tenant will have their rents capped at 2% once the emergency legislation to extend the RPZs is passed later this week.