Up to 24 Fine Gael Oireachtas members are landlords, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has claimed as he asked if it was a factor in the party's resistance to rent control.

During heated exchanges in the Dáil on the housing crisis, Mr Adams said there was “chaos” in the Cabinet in the row over rent certainty.

Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly had been promising rent certainty since February but Taoiseach Enda Kenny believed "interference in the market to its detriment is not something we should do", Mr Adams quoted.

He asked the Taoiseach to confirm that “the Government will introduce rent certainty. Will you tell us that today and if not why not”.

Declining to respond directly, Mr Kenny reiterated that “the Government is not going to do anything that would make the situation worse”.

He said progress had been made, with 700 families being accommodated in voided units that had been renovated. There were changes in the housing assistance programme and €4 billion was on the table for housing up to 2020.

Mr Adams said the Taoiseach did not answer the question.

“Since you took office, rents have increased by 35 per cent,” he said, accusing Fine Gael of resisting rent certainty. “Up to 24 Fine Gael Oireachtas members are landlords. Is this a factor?”

He asked the Taoiseach if it would be “Fine Gael’s way or Labour’s way”.

Mr Kenny said it certainly would not be Sinn Féin’s way, and Mr Adams retorted that meant no rent certainty.

Independent TD Mick Wallace later claimed a cartel of predominantly foreign investors was now controlling the rental market.

He told Mr Kenny that “we need to build social housing through the local authorities. Not until then will you solve the housing crisis.”

He said the Taoiseach was not the only one with responsibility, as the housing crisis was the results of decades “of housing policy that follows the private free market sector”.

Market control

“You’ve got a cartel of investors now, most of them foreign controlling the rental market,” Mr Wallace said. “Rents have gone from €1,000 a month to €1,500 because of the fact that you have literally sold half the country away.”

He called on the Taoiseach to stall the Nama sale of a group of loans, known as Project Arrow, to US investment firm Cerberus, and to take suitable housing units out of the sale.

“We sold the best sites in Ireland through Nama to investment trusts from abroad,” he said.

Mr Wallace, who has loans with Cerberus, said Nama planned to build 20,000 houses. But only 10 per cent would be social when it should be 50 per cent.

Mr Kenny said Nama was setting up 100 sites, each building 80 units.