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

We need to balance two things. First, we need to ensure we are not charging rents that are over the top for businesses. Second, we need to run six fisheries harbours in a businesslike manner so they can pay for themselves, if possible, and pay for the investment that is and has been needed over the years. We are trying to balance our obligation as a landlord to be fair to the tenants and do all we can to keep them in business by not applying rents that are over the top with the requirement to obtain an acceptable commercial income from all of the tenancies within our harbours. We are trying to balance those two priorities. This is why I have tried to give certainty to businesses by saying we will not go through the rent review process. The point I am making is that some of the rent reviews we went ahead with actually recommended an increase in rent, so just because a review is carried out by an independent assessor, it does not necessarily mean we will get a recommendation to reduce rent. Of course tenants will want lower rent all the time but I have to run the harbours in a businesslike commercial manner so I can invest in those harbours and, at the same time, not treat tenants unfairly. That is why I believe that putting off rent reviews in order to essentially freeze rent for the foreseeable future is a reasonable way to proceed.

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