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

When we debated this issue before Christmas, Deputy Cowen, in particular, and several other Deputies, raised the issue of the need to expand this beyond Cork and Dublin quickly. I intend to do that but I want to do it on the basis of sound data rather than on the basis of making decisions to be popular. We simply did not have the data needed, on a local electoral area basis, to be able to designate areas that are experiencing real rent pressures at the moment. They were not designated as such because the only data we had was on a local authority area basis. When the figures were aggregated, this meant that towns that had huge rental pressures did not qualify because of rural areas in the same local authority area which did not have such pressures. We will have data in the next few weeks - indeed, information is already starting to come through - that will mean we will be looking at designating at least 15 new areas, in terms of local electoral areas. We will get assessments of those areas done quickly so that we can create new designations for rent pressure zones as quickly as possible.

I gave commitments that we would do that quickly and would not delay so that people who are in areas that have real pressures will see that the Government is serious about extending rent pressure zones. The areas we are focusing on are cities like Waterford, Limerick and Galway as well as areas adjacent to Dublin and Cork city. This includes counties like Wicklow, Kildare, Meath and places on the outskirts of Cork City like Carrigaline, Ballincollig and so on. If areas qualify under the criteria with which everyone is familiar, they will be designated as rent pressure zones and the rules will apply. We will limit rent inflation in those areas to 4% annually.

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