Taoiseach expects rent caps to be extended nationwide by this summer

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

The Taoiseach has said he expects rent caps to be extended nationwide by this summer.

Tánaiste Simon Harris told the Dáil on Thursday that the emergency legislation would be brought forward next week to extend rent caps nationwide.

Micheál Martin also denied that the government “flew kites” on its rent control proposals, which he described as “modest”.

He accused opposition politicians of being “completely over the top” in response to his comments on Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) earlier this year.

As part of the government’s rent and tenancy reforms announced on Tuesday, rent caps for ares of high demand – caps of 2% or linked to inflation, whichever is lower – will be extended nationwide.

This will apply to around a fifth of tenancies not already in an RPZ, including Donegal, Carlow, Cavan and parts of Cork.

Asked whether this extension would be passed by the summer recess, Mr Martin said he expected it would be done “very quickly”.

He added: “Yes, I mean, the first part will be extending it nationally and that should happen very quickly, because it’s a short bill.”

He said the RPZ extension would be included in the Planning bill, which will be done before the summer recess, or in a standalone “shorter” bill.

“There’s no big deal about that, that’s not a big issue for us, but it’s one we can do fairly quickly.”

When put to him that he had earlier this year refused to say whether RPZs would be retained, Mr Martin said: “No, I did not. I did not.

“I said they were being reviewed. The response to what I said was completely exaggerated and over the top and motivated by politics.

“Politicians came up and said in the Dáil in March ‘you’re getting rid of RPZs’. I never said we were getting rid of RPZs.

“Everybody knew that in October, a review was under way, the Housing Agency was asked to do it. It was commissioned in October last and people just raced away and said ‘we’re getting rid of RPZs’. We never said we were getting rid of RPZs.”

He said he told Sinn Féin and the Social Democrats in the Dáil “repeatedly” that they would not get rid of RPZs.

“It was a great line to put the fear up people. I didn’t put the fear up anybody,” he added.

He said he expected the opposition to support the rent cap extension and that the “modest” proposals have been “broadly” welcomed by the construction industry.

He added: “Many people in the housing would say there’s a modest plan, actually, because I think a lot of the opposition didn’t see the protections coming with it.

“People feel that the combination of the linking of future rents of new apartment buildings or units to CPI (inflation), along with the capacity to reset after six years, the combination of those two should encourage investment, which wasn’t coming up to now.”

In Leaders’ Questions on Thursday, Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty accused the Government of a “headless chicken approach” to its rent control plans.

He said: “This is a charter for higher rents. This is a charter for the vulture funds and for property developers. It is benefiting landlords, that is the only people who will benefit here.”

Mr Harris said the government proposals “didn’t fall from the sky” and accused Mr Doherty of continuing to “misinform” people.

The Fine Gael leader said they were based on the Housing Agency’s review, which raised challenges with the suggestion of “reference rents”.

Mr Harris said that RPZs would be extended to Mr Doherty’s constituency of Donegal for the first time and asked did he not welcome that.

He said Mary Lou McDonald is in favour of rent pressure zones and doesn’t want institutional investment in Ireland, while Eoin O Broin is in favour of reference rents and has met institutional firms regularly, with Mr Doherty.

“Sinn Féin are all over the place on housing,” he said.