Holly Cairns: Government OKs Renting Garden Sheds at Market Rents

Taoiseach, last year Minister John Cummins was clear. Modular units in people's back gardens would not be available for rent on the private market. He said, quote, I don't see this as a rental measure, I see it as facilitating intergenerational movement. There was broad agreement across the opposition, these units could help families and they should, but opening them up to the private rental market was always going to lead to exploitation. And we can already see exactly where that road leads. On Clare Street in Dublin, up to 22 people are crammed into one house paying up to 890 euro for a bed. And Taoiseach, that's in a room with three or four other people with the landlord raking in almost 20,000 euro a month. This is not a functional housing system. This is a return to tenement conditions which were rampant in the worst years of this state. It should not be tolerated, but your government seems to think differently. Because today, Taoiseach, you're calling it practical and pragmatic to charge market rents for cabins in back gardens. Let's be clear about what that means. Charging 2,000 to 3,000 euro a month for a shed in someone's garden with no tenancy rights because they will be rented out using licensing agreements. The same loophole is already being used in Clare Street right now. These renters have no security of tenure, no statutory notice periods, no rent controls, and no access to the RTB. Renters are being thrown to the wolves, and this government is telling them they should be happy about it. It is outrageous. Taoiseach, I know so many young people across the country are angry today, but more than that, they are exhausted. They look at this government and what you are doing, and they just despair. And Taoiseach, would you blame them? What exactly is your vision for young people in this country? Is it for them to be ripped off by landlords, to scrimp and save, to live in garden sheds, to be denied their tenancy rights? Because unfortunately, Taoiseach, that is the legacy that you are leaving. For anyone watching today, I want to be clear. There are solutions to the housing crisis, solutions like establishing a state construction company and modular homes factories to dramatically increase the supply of affordable homes, a new state savings scheme to raise billions to fund them, and a ban on no-fault evictions to protect renters instead of treating them like second-class citizens. These are all political choices the government could make but refuses to. Taoiseach, how can you justify renters being charged extortionate rents to live in back gardens with no tenancy rights? Deputy, I think you look at the world through one prism when it comes to housing. We look at it in another. In my vision for young people, housing is number one, and it means a relentless, relentless focus on supply. You have opposed all supply measures in this House for the last number of years, and you keep on criticising every single initiative that we've undertaken. If we don't get supply up, we will not moderate rents. All the West is just populist waffle if we don't really focus on what matters. Now, when you talk about legacy, when government was formed in 2020, direct social housing bills were in the low thousands. Last year we built 9,000 social homes in 2025, the highest on record since the state was founded. I'm quite happy. Not happy. I'd never be happy to be a hire. But that's a reasonable legacy in terms of permanent provision of social housing. And the good news is up to 23,000 more are in different stages of design and development. That's one aspect. The other is affordable. The other is cost rental. This week alone, I was at a sod turning yesterday, 800 new units, not cabins, Deputy, you know, real units in Richmond. The tarnisher was in Drogheda yesterday, about 500 to 600. And Minister Brown will be in Drogheda tomorrow, I think, with another 600. That's 2,000 houses, apartments, at sod turnings alone this week. We built 36,000 houses last year and delivered in 2025. That's the highest since records began, up 20% on 2024. 170,000 houses have been built since 2020, 50,000 apartment bills built. Planning momentum, 8,000 permissions in Q4 2025, up 19%. 20,000 houses granted permission in 2025, highest since 2009. And 8,000 commencement notices in Q1 2026. So these are facts. Not enough? We want to get to 50,000 per annum. No, in terms of the exemptions, you said exemptions were a good idea, if just for family members. I think that's what you said. But can I ask you the question, if it's just for family members, they are no longer cabins? You know, you had very derogatory language when you said they were for rent. But if the very same structures were built for family members, what are they? They're not cabins anyway, because they have to be in alignment with the existing building regulations. And I think many people will welcome this. We'll keep it under review, Deputy. But we will look at every single way that we can ease pressure on people, ease pressure on the private rental market, and also give opportunities to people. We will follow up with guidelines in terms of rural housing. Because it is a crisis, housing is. But we're never going to solve it if we criticize every single measure that a government introduces, which you have been doing now for five years. I believe we have to explore every option to get more and more houses built. When you come in here week after week and give this profoundly positive spin about housing, I have to wonder if you even feel convinced by your own words. We're in a situation where we have not just record rents and record house prices, we have record homelessness. We're talking about 17,000, more than 17,000 homeless people, more than five and a half thousand children. And you come in here and give this unbelievably positive message. And then you say that this government isn't out of touch. It's difficult to even respond to. But Taoiseach, ultimately, it's evasion and it's deflection and it's a way of avoiding the question. So I'm just going to ask you again. Do you accept that people renting these cabins, these sheds in people's gardens, will not have any protection, any renter's rights? Are you okay with that? If not, what are you going to do about it? Look, again, Deputy, I'm solution-driven in terms of housing. Okay, you're not. And I'm sorry, I am answering the question. The Social Democrats, for example, voted against all residential zoning proposals on Fingal County Council. Two weeks ago, when the council agreed development plan to zone for 5,000 additional homes, you opposed them. You opposed Ballymuth Stone as well, the project there. People are now living in those houses. And you just can't keep opposing everything, Deputy, and claim you're serious about housing. That's the point I am making here. Choices have to be made. And in terms of the planning, in terms of the exemptions and so on, it is a major package of exempted development regulations to reduce planning bureaucracy. Planning bureaucracy has slowed us down in terms of house provision, speed up delivery of additional units, maximize existing housing stocks. So it frees local authority resources for large-scale projects, introduces clear national standards, allows subdivision of homes to create one additional unit, just one additional unit, simplifies attic conversions, supporting rental supply. The rent of room relief applies. And all of that will happen. I'm very clear. We will reduce the pressure on the...