Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, for his attendance. This legislation is somewhat peculiar. I am sure Deputies looking at the Dáil schedule will have wondered what it is and why we are discussing a local area. The reason is that this issue arose as a consequence of the way in which previous legislation was drafted. The Bill affects only two areas, to my knowledge, both of which are referenced. They are Carrigaline in my area and Clogherhead, County Louth. I believe the issue is perhaps more substantial in scale in Carrigaline but that does not make a blind bit of difference to renters in Clogherhead who could be affected to the same extent if they were asked for a rent increase of €200, €300 or €400, as they could be.

The Bill is fundamentally about people living in areas - little islands - surrounded entirely by rent pressure zones, RPZs, in which tenancies are controlled. These are highly competitive urban markets in which rents are rising quickly but because of the way the legislation is constructed, they cannot be captured by it. The first time I raised this matter was in 2017. At the time, I raised the anomaly that Carrigaline was split between two municipal districts. This caused the peculiarity that the southern side of the town, because it was in a different electoral area, was not in the rent pressure zone and hence the peculiarity. However, the electoral area issue was rectified and Carrigaline was brought into one electoral area. I am sure Deputy Nash can tell us later about the different movements in the Louth area. The area comprising the southern part of Carrigaline, from the bridge down, Crosshaven, Ballygarvan, Myrtleville, Fountainstown and some of the areas surrounding them is effectively in the Cork City rental market. Most of the people in this area look to Cork city to do business, work and so on. Most people working in the city look towards Carrigaline to rent or buy a house. For this reason, rents have risen to high levels. The larger part of the town was one of the first areas to be designated a rent pressure zone, along with the big city council areas of Cork and Dublin. Without rehearsing all the detail unnecessarily, as a result of redrawing, the smaller area of the new electoral area was brought in, but because it was the smaller area it was considered that the electoral area was designated. At that point, I began to raise the matter with Ministers arguing that all the surrounding area should be in the rent pressure zones. Subsequently, more electoral areas were designated pressure zones. I contacted the then Minister, Eoghan Murphy, the current Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the Minister, Deputy Coveney, in whose constituency Carrigaline is located, although he did not have the housing portfolio at the time. When I raised this anomaly and asked what was going on, I was reassured time and again that if the rent increases are adequate, the legislation allows for the town to be captured and it will be brought into the rent pressure zone. However, as time passed and this did not happen, I investigated some more. I raised the matter with the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, last year. The metric for bringing an area into the rent pressure zone is that the level of inflation must be above the national standardised average rent. I asked whether the breakdown went any further than electoral areas. I was told by Ms Gallagher of the Residential Tenancies Board that the local electoral area is the smallest area to which the RTB disaggregates the data. She could not tell me whether the RTB could do that if it were asked, and it had not been asked.

I already had the legislation drafted at that stage but that was the final proof I needed that this was a loophole and that there was no way for these areas to be captured. There are some areas in which small parts of previously designated rent pressure zones were in an electoral area that was subsequently designated a rent pressure zone. My belief is that because it was only a very limited part of the electoral area, the data were captured for the whole area and it was effectively treated as a new rent pressure zone.

This, on the other hand, is being treated as an existing rent pressure zone, with a bit added on and we are not sure what that is doing. That is what we need to fix.

I want to come back to what this means in real terms. I have given the background and some of it is probably a bit tedious and complicated for anyone listening in. In practical terms, what does this mean? It concerns a substantial number of renters, about 1,200. The best the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, could give us was the percentages of renters in the electoral area who are in the rent pressure zone and who are not in it. It is about 1,200 renters, which is a lot of people. We have been contacted by people who have faced very substantial rent increases, way beyond the rate of inflation. Landlords know they can do this, they do it and they can do it because the competition in the rental market is so severe. People are facing increases of hundreds of euro.

In some ways I do not have all that much more to say. Carrigaline is a very popular place to live. It is a thriving community with more and more amenities, both public and private. It is an area with a very young population. I brought it up in respect of different issue during the week. Almost one in three of the population is under the age of 18, so it is a very young area. The pressure on the rental market is only going to increase. I take this opportunity to flag the fact that affordable housing is a big need there, particularly as the price of houses rises. The county council and the Minister of State's Department need to examine that. There is one scheme and maybe one more progressing over the next while but a lot more is needed in the area. It is in the county council area but, realistically, it is a well built-up urban area.

This problem is only going to become more severe. I understand the Minister of State is not going to oppose this Bill. I hope we can have his co-operation in trying to progress it and not just not opposing it going to Committee Stage. Whether it through this legislation, or residential tenancies legislation the Government brings forward periodically, we must get this enacted.

Tá mé ag súil gur féidir linn an fhadhb seo a réiteach. Tá réiteach á lorg againn do na tionóntaí i gCarraig Uí Leighin, i mBaile Garbháin, i mBun an Tábhairne, agus i mBaile Bhunáin. Tá brú millteanach ar na tionóntaí sna ceantair sin go léir ó thaobh cíosa agus caithfimid an deis a ghlacadh anois é seo a réiteach dóibh. Tuigim nach raibh sé ar intinn ag an Rialtas an fhadhb seo a chruthú. Is botún a bhí ann agus tarlaíonn sé sin. Nuair a bhítear ag iarraidh reachtaíocht a chur tríd, ní fheictear i gcónaí cad a tharlódh dá mbeadh athraithe i bpíosa reachtaíochta eile agus an tionchar a bheadh aige sin. Ní féidir linn go léir é sin a fheiscint. Cad is féidir linn a dhéanamh áfach? Is féidir linn réiteach a fháil air.

To wrap up, I do not mean to imply by any of this that rent pressure zones are the solution or that they are the be all and end all. They are an imperfect situation. Sinn Féin would like to see a rent freeze. As I outlined, we also want to see a huge upscaling of social and affordable housing construction. There is too much reliance on the private sector, including for the social housing need. We have a profound anomaly here. We have a real oddity and a situation where renters in Carrigaline, Fountainstown, Crosshaven, Ballygarvan and all those areas can face rent increases way out of proportion to inflation. This is happening. Landlords are inflicting these rent increases on renters. I hope the Minister of State will work with me. I am grateful to him and the Government for not opposing this legislation. I hope we can get this resolved for the renters in this area and in Clogherhead in County Louth and that we can get this fixed.

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