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

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As she knows, there are acute pressures in the rental market. These pressures are being driven by a number of factors, including rising demand, a lack of supply and the high costs that some indebted landlords face in servicing their loans. These stresses are confirmed by the latest data from the Daft.ierental report. The report shows that rent asking prices rose nationwide by an average 11.7% in the year to September 2016. In Dublin annual rental inflation is running at an average of 12.1%. Strong rent inflation is also seen in the Dublin commuter counties. These increases are placing huge pressures on tenants, particularly those who are seeking new accommodation.

The problems in the rental sector are undoubtedly part of a bigger issue. Ireland is in the midst of a housing supply crisis and shortage. The problems caused by high rents reflect, and are reflected in, the other issues facing the housing market, those being, not enough homes for first-time buyers, increased demand for social housing and unacceptable levels of homelessness. While many factors contribute to these problems, the one common to all of them is the prolonged and chronic lack of supply of new houses. This is borne out by the Daft.iefigures on supply. There were fewer than 3,700 homes available to rent nationwide on 1 October, with just over 1,400 of those in Dublin.

The best way to reduce and stabilise rents in the long term and benefit the entire sector is to increase supply and accelerate delivery of housing for the private and social rented sectors. Rebuilding Ireland, the Government's action plan on housing and homelessness, aims to increase and accelerate housing delivery across all tenures to help individuals and families to meet their housing needs. It sets out more than 80 actions that the Government is taking through new policy and legislation, significantly increased funding and innovative measures in the budget to achieve that aim. Pillar 4 of the action plan commits to developing a comprehensive strategy for the rental sector by the end of the year. I hope that we will have a new rental strategy by the middle of December, one that will try to balance the competing policy asks of, on the one hand, the need to help the people about whom the Deputy talked, namely, those who are finding themselves priced out of the market by rental inflation, and, on the other hand, to ensure that we do not shut down society by placing the dead hand of regulation on the market in our attempts to address what is a short-term to medium-term problem for many.

The Deputy called me a capitalist, but I am a pragmatist first and foremost. I see a problem and it is my job to try to fix it. As the Deputy knows, the previous Government took measures last year. They have had some effect, but they are not enough. We need to do more. We are examining the various ways in which we can introduce new approaches to address the dramatic rental increases in many parts of Ireland while, most importantly, encouraging an increase in supply. Otherwise, we will continue dealing with the symptoms of a supply deficit indefinitely. That is something that we cannot allow.

We have not been building houses in sufficient numbers for the past seven or eight years because the property market collapsed and the banking sector with it. As those sectors re-emerge, we will see increased supply. We must encourage that in a sustainable way while also taking other actions, given the pressures that many tenants face. There will be moves in that direction in the new strategy, which she will see in a few weeks' time.

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