Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine owns and operates under statute six fishery harbour centres at Killybegs, Ros a' Mhíl, Dingle, Castletownbere, Dunmore East and Howth. Properties located in the fishery harbour centres are offered for tenancy under lease or licence agreements when appropriate. An individual agreement, which is a formal document and is legally binding on both parties, is voluntarily signed at the outset by the tenant. The Department has approximately 140 property agreements in place in the six fisheries harbours.

Property agreements are complex instruments. The specific terms of the agreements held with the Department vary. Approximately 80 of the property agreements that are in place do not contain rent review clauses which require rent to be static or increased in the subsequent period. These agreements include short-term licence agreements and pending lease agreements. Any property agreements that were entered into after to the application of section 132 of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009 contain rent review clauses in which the rent payable following the review may be fixed at an amount which is less than, greater than or the same as the amount of rent payable immediately prior to the date on which the rent falls to be reviewed. Approximately 60 lease agreements contain rent review clauses which require static or increased rent to be applied for the subsequent period. All of the property agreements that contain such rent review clauses were signed prior to the application of section 132 of the 2009 Act. These agreements generally require rent reviews to be conducted every five years. The most recent round of rent reviews on these agreements related to the period up to mid-2008. A number of the rental valuations determined by the qualified valuer, who was appointed by the Department following a tender competition, were disputed by the tenants. The rent review dispute procedures set out in the tenants' leases were followed. In some cases, the independent experts recommended a decrease in the revised valuation determined by the valuer acting on behalf of the Department.

I am acutely aware of the economic situation facing businesses and small enterprises. Following the completion of rent reviews due for the period up to mid-2008, I decided in 2011 that no rent reviews would be carried out for years subsequent to 2008 and that zero rent increases would apply across the board. I have recently decided to continue this approach for rent reviews due in 2013. A zero rent increase will be applied in all such cases. In other words, we are providing for a practical response. When a rent review takes place, we are entitled in law to consider either an increase or a retention of the same rent. We have decided that the easiest way to deal with this is by not reviewing the rents so that they do not increase for the tenants in question.

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