Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Before the Minister leaves the Chamber, I would like to make a couple of points that would be of interest to him on a local basis. I will not detain him for long. I would like to draw his attention to one of the largest rent increases I have come across in recent weeks. One of my constituents contacted me to express concern about a proposed rent increase from €750 to €1,100. The landlord in this case is essentially and constructively making this person homeless. Even though the tenant in question is an applicant of Cork City Council, the 4% limit proposed by the Minister would not be of benefit to this tenant because the person lives a small number of metres outside the Cork City Council administrative area, which does not accurately represent the Cork city of today.

We are proposing amendment No. 11 to the Government's amendment No. 68 to try to ameliorate the Government proposal by including a number of additional areas. It is important to point out that we are doing this purely on that basis. A number of significant problems arise when particular local authority areas are chosen rather than other such areas. We are trying to ameliorate that, as I have said. It is proposed to use municipal districts or local electoral areas for these purposes. Local electoral areas in this country have never before been as big as they are now. The area I previously represented has a population of approximately 71,000 people. MPs are elected by constituencies with similar populations in parts of Wales and western Scotland. Some counties in this State have just two local electoral areas. The inclusion in larger electoral areas with significant rural areas of sizeable towns where there are substantial rental pressures is putting downward pressure on the averages for the purposes of the review process the Minister is talking about. It is a blunt instrument. It is clear that a rent certainty measure would be preferable.

I say all this to draw attention to the absurdity of the current city council boundaries, which exclude between 30,000 and 40,000 people who are properly living in the city and a similar number of people who are living just outside it. This has had implications for the housing assistance payment, HAP, and for rent supplement. It is now having implications for these rental zones. Areas like Rochestown, Donnybrook, Carrigaline, Grange, Frankfield and Togher, which have seen some of the most significant rent increases, are excluded from the rental zones even though they are part of the city council's area. Consideration is currently being given to a proposal to merge Cork city and county councils. In light of the way we manage housing payments and calculate issues relating to housing such as this, the averages in these urban areas would be dragged down significantly if such a merger were to happen. If the averages in the Cork city area and the metropolitan area were to be dragged down in this way, the reality on the ground would no longer be reflected. That would not be the only implication of such a merger, but it is a real implication nonetheless. The failure to reflect the reality on the ground has already had a significant effect in the areas directly surrounding the area which is currently called "Cork city" but in reality resembles the Cork city of approximately 50 years ago. The 12% increases that many tenants in these areas will face are excessive. They are utterly unsustainable given that many tenants are already paying rents far beyond their capability.

Rent certainty is a much more realistic and fair measure. In light of the suggestion that investment is needed to provide a degree of certainty, and given that the ESRI has made comments about providing certainty, I do not understand why people feel rent certainty is unacceptable. If landlords could be confident that there would not be a dramatic increase or decrease in their income, why would they not have the confidence to invest in and retain their tenancies and properties? Nobody has explained that to me. I do not understand why a system of rent certainty that offers fairness, certainty and security for tenants, who are obviously the key priority, cannot also be said to offer certainty and security to landlords.

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