Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Earlier, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, outlined the Government's absolute commitment to resolving our national housing crisis. That crisis is affecting all parts of the housing sector, including the rental sector. Our approach must, therefore, be holistic and founded on the realisation that all parts of the housing sector are interlinked and interdependent.

It was precisely because of rent increases that the Government introduced a package of rent stability and additional housing supply measures last November. The Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2015 introduced a number of measures to address rising rents. With regard to rent stability, the Act provided that the minimum period between rent reviews for tenancies increased from 12 to 24 months. The provision will apply for a four-year period. In addition, the minimum period of notice of new rents was increased from 28 days to 90 days and longer notice periods for the termination of long-term tenancies were introduced. The extension of the period between rent reviews from 12 months to 24 months takes effect from the date of the last review. If a tenant had a rent review in July 2015, the next review would not be until July 2017.

There is, however, no question but that pressures on the rental market remain driven by rising demand, which is a result of the economic recovery, by a lack of supply and by the high costs that highly-indebted landlords face in servicing their loans. These pressures are borne out by the data published by the Residential Tenancies Board Ireland and in the daft.ierental reports. Fundamentally, the increases in rent have been driven by a mismatch between the additional demand associated with the very welcome economic recovery and a lack of a corresponding response in supply. The best way to reduce and stabilise rents in the long term and to benefit the entire sector is to increase supply and accelerate delivery of housing for private and social rental sectors.

Unfortunately, there is no on-off button for the delivery of additional rental accommodation. It takes time for the supply measures in particular to take effect and alleviate some of the pressures. The aim of Rebuilding Ireland, the Government's action plan on housing and homelessness, is to increase and accelerate housing delivery across all tenures to help individuals and families meet their housing needs. It sets out more than 80 actions that the Government is taking through new policy, new legislation and innovative measures in the budget to achieve that aim.

As the Minister, Deputy Coveney, outlined earlier, pillar 4 of the Government's action plan commits to developing a comprehensive strategy for the rental sector by the end of this year in just a few weeks' time. The strategy for the rental sector will lay out measures to address immediate issues affecting the supply, the cost and the accessibility of accommodation. In particular, the strategy will consider measures to increase security of tenure and will consider the potential of new mechanisms for both setting and reviewing rents. The strategy will also focus on maintaining existing levels of rental stock and encouraging investment in additional supply. Most importantly, the strategy will set out the wide-ranging actions this Government will take to get us the type of mature and stable sector we want to see and which reflects our changing housing demand and supports continued recovery for our modern economy.

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