‘You mislead people, you burn’ – housing minister defends rent controls

The housing minister has accused the Opposition of whipping up “false anger” over his housing proposals during a Dail debate on extending rent controls nationwide.

While warning opposition politicians of the dangers of misleading the public, James Browne drew comparisons with the far-right, populism and of a “Faustian pact”.

Mr Browne also said: “Because you mislead people, you burn.”

The Government is being pressured again over its approach to solving Ireland’s housing crisis, after announcing a swathe of new rent and housing measures.

This includes the introduction of rent caps nationwide of 2% or to inflation, whichever is lower.

This will apply to around a fifth of tenancies not already covered and has been welcomed, but other measures have been criticised as a pathway to even higher rents.

Six-year minimum tenancies on offer from March next year have been criticised for allowing landlords to “reset” rents to market value every six years or when tenants voluntarily leave a rental property.

There have also been criticisms of rents in new developments being capped only by inflation, in order to attract investors in an attempt to boost the supply of apartments.

The Fianna Fail-Fine Gael government, supported by several independents, has insisted that boosting supply is the best way to encourage affordability, while opposition parties argue more state-owned homes and regulation is needed.

While debating the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill 2025, which will introduce nationwide rent caps this summer, the government and opposition representatives criticised one another over their housing stances.

Fianna Fail’s Catherine Ardagh accused Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne of a “sanctimonious rant”.

“It’s very difficult to listen to my friend’s sanctimonious rant in relation to this,” the Dublin South Central TD said.

“I’m sure you are familiar, I think you are a lecturer in economics. We know from Junior Cert economics when you increase supply in the market, prices stabilise if not come down.

“It’s economics 101.”

She said the Bill would ensure “fairness, certainty and protection” for renters across the country.

Independent Galway West TD Catherine Connolly said she was inspired to speak during the legislative debate to respond to Ms Ardagh’s comments.

“I can’t think of anything more inappropriate from a TD (who is) part of the government that is standing over a housing crisis.

“The only sanctimonious (rant) that I’ve ever heard in this chamber has been from successive governments, as a tool and a weapon to obfuscate, to avoid, to confuse as a way to not analyse the problem.”

She criticised the “chaotic, disorderly fashion” that the draft rent control laws were introduced to the Dail without pre-legislative scrutiny.

“We keep adding the pieces of the jigsaw with no picture – expect the picture of ‘the market will provide’.”

Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman said the progression of the Bill was “reckless” and said it was inevitable that problems would later come to light.

“I understand sometimes you have to work and move legislation rapidly, I’ve had to do it myself,” the former minister said.

“But this isn’t rapid, this is reckless.

“I have no doubt that mistakes will come to light, in the debate here or in the debate in the Seanad, but because there isn’t sufficient time to actually go through it in detail, to bring in the committee amendments, we will be bringing forward legislative amendments in the autumn term, I have no doubt about that.”

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said the government believed in “the magic of the market” and that by increasing rents now, they would come down in the long term.

“The government won’t own its own proposals. They tell us that what you’re doing is going to increase investment in the rental sector and that ultimately will bring rents down.

“But you refuse to say the bit in the middle, in terms of why is this going to increase investment in the rental sector, which is the plan is to raise rents.”

Aontu leader Peadar Toibin accused the government of an “omni-shambles” in relation to rent controls and “confusion” and “chaos” over its latest housing measures.

“It really feels that this is amateur hour in relation to the government’s approach.”

Mr Browne hit back, accusing the opposition of a “Faustian pact” and of whipping up “false anger”.

He said personal comments had been made in the Dail but no solutions offered, and accused Sinn Fein of “quietly shelving” their manifesto plan for “a home you’ll never own”.

He also claimed the opposition had “worryingly” misled the public about the timing of plans to introduce rent controls nationwide.

He said a Bill cannot go on the Order Paper until it has government approval, which it secured last Tuesday.

“Yet here we have Sinn Fein and Labour and the Social Democrats, all who know the procedures, deliberately putting it out there that because it wasn’t on the order paper it wasn’t going to happen, and that suddenly there was some sort of fast change.

“That’s the kind of politics we see from the far-right, and we see that introduced here now.”

He said that it was dangerous to “whip up a false anger” and said it was “pure populism”.

“You were deliberately misrepresenting the procedures to, again, whip up a false narrative. It is deeply dishonest.

“It’s a kind of a Faustian pact, we’ve seen Labour do that to get into government before, and you get in a Faustian pact to whip up anger to try and get into government … if you get into government on the back of that kind of whipping up anger, you see what happened to Labour the last time and that’s what happens.

“Because you mislead people, you burn,” he said.

It was agreed in the Dail on Wednesday that the Bill would move to committee and final stages.