Young people's sex lives affected by skyrocketing rents, TD warns

Skyrocketing rents are impacting on the sex lives of Ireland's young people, Solidarity TD Mick Barry told the Dáil on Wednesday.

The Cork North-Central TD said the rental crisis was causing young people to stay at home with their parents for far longer than most would wish. "Ten years ago, the average age for leaving home was 19 whereas today it is 28, and people are being forced to stay at home with their parents into their 30s. That has to cramp the style of young people.

He said that while parents today are more liberal than they were "back in my day", "it cannot be too good for the sex lives of young people to be forced to stay at home with their parents until they are 28 or into their 30s, and that is apart from anything else."

Mr Barry was speaking as People Before Profit put forward the Rent Reduction Bill 2023, which sets out to reduce rents to affordable levels by limiting them to a maximum of a quarter of monthly household incomes and to establish a National Rent Authority.

During the debate People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Paul Murphy listed out TDs who are landlords and said they should not participate in the vote on the Bill this evening and to do so would be “to engage in a conflict of interest”.

He told the Dáil: "The names of the landlord Deputies who should not vote on this Bill because they have a clear conflict of interest are as follows: the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, of Fine Gael; Deputy Leddin of the Green Party; Deputy Creed of Fine Gael; Deputy Kehoe of Fine Gael; Deputy Phelan of Fine Gael; Deputy Bruton of Fine Gael; Deputy Canney of the Regional Group; Deputy Grealish of the Regional Group; Deputy Shanahan, Independent; Deputy Dillon, Fine Gael; Deputy Troy, Fianna Fáil; Deputy Michael Moynihan, Fianna Fáil; Deputy Byrne, Fianna Fáil; Deputy Haughey, Fianna Fáil; Deputy Lawless, Fianna Fáil; Deputy Aindrias Moynihan, Fianna Fáil; Deputy Brendan Smith, Fianna Fáil; Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, Rural Independent Group; Deputy Nolan, Rural Independent Group; Deputy Kelly, the Labour Party; Deputy Guirke, Sinn Féin; Deputy Stephen Donnelly, Fianna Fáil; and Deputy Foley, Fianna Fáil. Those people should not participate in the vote tonight. To do so is to engage in a conflict of interest."

Minister of State at the Department of Housing Malcolm Noonan said apart from technical and practical operational shortcomings of the Bill, it would “in all likelihood face significant risk of legal challenge”.

Mr Noonan said it would also be likely to have a “severely detrimental effect” on supply of rental property and that the Government would be opposing the Bill. "The measures proposed in the Bill are likely to result in the withdrawal of many units from the rental sector and severely constrain future supply."