Mr. Oliver Gilvarry:

From the announcements that we have seen, the Government is supposed to bring forward proposals on Thursday on capping rent increases at 2% or the inflation rate, whichever is lower. The Government seems to be bringing forward some of those measures which are attempting to deal with the increases in rental costs. In reality, supply is needed. Controls can be put in place. There is always an economic argument that rent controls lead to properties coming out of the market. We need to see supply. Within the challenge this year, we need to be careful that the supply measures and the demand measures that have been put forward by the Government do not lead to an imbalance which makes the situation even worse.

It is important to flag that one of the recommendations is that we need to ensure the planning system has the appropriate people to move planning forward quickly so that we do not have developers waiting a long time for approval for developments or even the State waiting to build social housing. We should have the appropriate resources in place so that we can get those applications through quickly. In reality, the supply coming on will normalise the market and bring prices into balance.