Mr. David Silke:

Thanks very much for the question. We identified four options in the context of the legislation coming to an end at the end of this year. The first one was not to do anything and just let the legislation wither at the end of the year. That would mean that we would have an open system of rent, with no rent regulation essentially. We felt that while that might encourage more supply, it would be very detrimental to tenants who would experience very large increases in their rent. The second option was to continue on with the current system, or just extend it. The current legislation has been extended on three occasions already so it could be extended again, as is, at the moment. We felt that would not encourage further investment and while it might be of benefit to current tenants, it would be of less benefit to new tenants because landlords might front-load the rental levels in order to take on board the fact that the regulations were in place. The third option was a new form of rent regulation, which I just explained. There are examples around Europe of reference rents or points-based systems. Reference rents are based on comparable properties in an area while under a points-based system, which they use in the Netherlands, points are given for different aspects of a property and then multiplied up by a euro amount to calculate the rent. They are considered fairer in the sense that one is paying for what one gets. In Ireland, people often pay similar for a three-bedroom apartment or a two-bedroom house whereas with a points-based system, it is fairer in terms of what one is paying for. I outlined the problems we identified with that. We felt that such a system could not be introduced within the timescale we were working with. That brought us on to the fourth option which was to look at amending the current system. We looked at the potential problems with the current system and how they might be amended going forward. One option was to extend the system nationally. Another was the resetting of rents between tenancies. At the moment, rent is based on the property but we suggested moving that to the tenancy. That would allow the landlord to reset the rent over a period of time back up to the market level.