Rent control row like ‘Nero fiddling while Rome burns’

An internal Government row over the issue of rent certainty has been portrayed as “Nero fiddles while Rome burns” by a leading homelessness campaigner.

Fr Peter McVerry labelled as a "disaster" the Labour Party admission that the suggestion of linking rent increases to the consumer price index is now off the table.

He reserved his most scathing criticism for what he called the "bickering" between Minister for Finance Michael Noonan and Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly over some way of controlling or capping rent.

“While families are flooding into homelessness, Government Ministers are bickering, arguing with another and disagreeing with one another.

‘Absolute disgrace’

“Nero fiddles while Rome burns - that’s the only image we have. It’s an absolute disgrace. We have a crisis, it’s beyond crisis, we have an emergency,” he said.

In an interview with RTÉ Radio's News at One, Fr McVerry said that if a foot and mouth crisis were to emerge in the morning, the Taoiseach would quickly summon Ministers and a plan would be found within 48 hours.

He said 60 families a month were becoming homeless earlier this year, rising to over 70 families a month more recently. He said he backed Mr Kelly’s stance on the issue, adding every charity working with homeless people had called for rent controls of one form or another and an increased rent supplement.

Such change would make a significant difference and prevent families from finding themselves homeless, he added.

The main problem was that rent supplement was too low, and Tánaiste Joan Burton, also Minister for Social Protection, had refused to increase it.

Mr Kelly, in a separate interview, said the work of the Dublin Homeless Executive had seen more than 700 people come through the other side and find accommodation.

Package of measures

He accepted the number of people becoming homeless because of increased rent levels was increasing, but said he and Mr Noonan were working on a package of measures to address this issue.

“The two main reasons are escalating rents and the second issue is the issue of supply,” he said.

“Long-term, the solution is supply. Short-term, we have to make sure that more people are not falling out of the rental sector,” he said.

He said a whole range of issues across government were being looked at, including the twin concerns of supply and rent.

Mr Noonan and Mr Kelly held two meetings on Monday to discuss related issues and officials from their respective departments are hopeful a solution can be reached by the weekend.