Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for being here. It has been an interesting discussion and it is certainly timely and needed. We know that private landlords are the backbone of the rental market. As has been noted, they provide 94% of rental properties. My local estate agents and property rental companies have given me three reasons for landlords leaving the market. The first is the regulatory context and it changing all the time. The launch of the RTB portal has frustrated that situation even further, as Mr. Davitt outlined. Second, there is the issue of taxation. We need to listen to that feedback and act accordingly. Third, there is the prospect of possible political change and new policies which they believe would exacerbate conditions for landlords.

We have heard what will not work, such as a three-year rent freeze or the removal of sale of property, family use or refurbishment as grounds for termination of lease, but we need to look at what can work. How do we deal with the regulation headaches that have been outlined? How do we provide a fairer tax system for landlords? Critically, will doing so achieve what has to be the overall goal, that is, to drive down the price of renting? If a landlord takes in less rent but pays less in tax and is happy with that, that is how we keep that landlord in the market and it is how the renter pays less. That is what we need to get to. We need to get to the renter paying less. Yes, in such a situation the Exchequer would end up footing the bill for the difference but we are in a rental crisis and the Government is investing hugely in affordable and social housing and incentives to get construction up and going. I believe we also need to invest in renters.

How do we get the RTB portal to work? Mr. Davitt stated that we need to start from scratch. There may be other suggestions in that regard. A constituent of mine could not register his or her tenancy on the new portal because it was originally registered on paper and could not be modernised. We cannot have a system where it is not possible to modernise things.

We have heard proposals in respect of reductions in income tax, capital acquisitions tax and capital gains tax. Dr. Byrne listed countries that have problems, challenging landscapes and growing rental markets that are similar to the experience in Ireland in the past ten years. Have tax incentives been used in other countries? Have they worked? Has any country with a landscape similar to that in Ireland cracked this issue? I invite Dr. Byrne to respond first.