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

Families on low incomes get many supports, for example, the housing assistance payment, HAP, the rental accommodation scheme and rent supplement. We took an extra 12,000 people onto the HAP scheme last year. We will take on even more, probably a further 15,000, this year. HAP and rent supplement payments were increased significantly last summer in many areas where there had been rental inflation. These increased support levels will cost the taxpayer an extra €50 million this year.

I agree with Deputy O'Dowd that the State has a responsibility to look after low-income families that are under pressure in the rental market. The core point is that we must increase supply. In Drogheda and many other towns, there are not enough available properties and there is too much competition for those that are available, which drives inflation. In some cases, landlords are abusing the situation. In others, they are not. Tenants are vulnerable in that type of market, which is why we have chosen to act in a way that no Government has ever acted, namely, to intervene in the private rental market and effectively put a cap on what rents can increase by each year for the next three years.

Under dispute in this debate are the criteria that allow an area to get into the protection zone for tenants. We picked something that was easy to understand. It was the subject of much discussion and consultation. It was relatively easy to assess independently by the RTB and the ESRI. Like the Deputy's figure of an increase of 16%, their calculation is based on new tenancies or new reviews and tries to get an accurate picture of the overall areas being assessed.

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