Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I have to leave at some time after 11.30 a.m. for another event, so I apologise.

Everyone will have seen the recent rent figures confirming the highest rent increases since records began. According to Focus Ireland, one in three tenants struggles to pay rent every month, and one in nine is worried about losing his or her home. That shows us that this threat is right across a range of incomes. It affects not only the most vulnerable people who are on rent allowance, but also is a real threat to the security of families across a whole range of incomes. Have rents been increased deliberately by landlords in anticipation of the rent pressure zone legislation? It increased faster in the last quarter than at any time. Rents have actually gone up 50% since Fine Gael took power, over this Government and the previous Government. That is an incredible figure and it speaks volumes.

I too have questions on how the zones are designated. One has to wait until it is over a number of quarters. Looking at Limerick, rents went up by 12.5% last year but not over long enough of a period. It is as if we are waiting for cities and towns to reach the Dublin crisis before we intervene. It is completely wrong and I have said this since the time of the legislation.

My substantive question is about policing of the new regulations. How can we tell if landlords are complying with the rent review period and the rent increase limits? When the changes were brought in at Christmas we argued in an amendment that a landlord should have to produce a certificate from the RTB showing the tenant what the rent was. It is impossible for tenants to know if landlords are complying with this legislation, and there is no in-built policing in it. Ms Rosalind Carroll from the RTB confirmed recently at a housing conference that the board is not notified of rent increases. The records only show what the rent was at the start of the tenancy. The RTB does not know what the rents are at the end. How do we know that a landlord is going to comply with the 4% limit? There is such competition for accommodation that a tenant will not question a landlord. I have serious question marks over how this will be implemented. If the RTB does not know what the actual rent on a tenancy was when the previous tenant moved out, how can it know if landlords are complying and how is a tenant supposed to know if a landlord is telling the truth when he or she makes the legal declaration to the tenant? Is it likely that tenants are likely to query such a statement, given that they are in a queue to get accommodation? The chief executive officer of Focus Ireland, Mr. Mike Allen, has pointed out that many agencies have already heard of landlords simply ignoring the 4%. How is this to be monitored?

If it is so easy for landlords to break the 4% cap, does that not create an incentive to evict sitting tenants and get new tenants in? I am not confident that this will stop the dubious evictions. We tabled a Bill in respect of this issue during January.

On pages ten to 11 of the document, the prospect of identifying public land to sell to developers to build private rented accommodation is discussed. The sell-off of public lands is a major problem in my opinion. As new landlords do not have to comply with the 4%, will the new landlords on these RPZs, to which the witnesses advocate the land be handed over, be obliged to comply or will the sky be the limit for them? Has a problem been created there?