Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise to both Deputies on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Coveney, and I thank them for raising this important issue. There are acute pressures in the rental market. Those pressures are driven by a number of factors including rising demand as a result of the economic recovery, a lack of supply and the high costs that highly indebted landlords face in servicing their loans. Those pressures are borne out by the data published by daft.iethis week. Its report shows that rent asking prices rose nationwide by an average 13.4% in the year to March 2017. In Dublin rents increased by 13.9%, while rents outside Dublin increased by 12.7%. However, the report also shows that rent inflation has slowed over the last quarter. The rate of increase in Dublin rent prices between quarter 4 of 2016 and quarter 1 of 2017 was significantly slower than the rate of increase over the year.

The annual inflation figure of 13.9% implies an average quarterly inflation of 3.5%. However, the quarterly inflation registered in quarter 1 of 2017 was less than half of that - with south county Dublin at 0.7%, west county at 1.4%, north county at 1.6%, north city at 1.5%, city centre at 2.1% and south city at 1.4%. However, the increases are placing huge pressures on tenants, particularly those who are seeking new accommodation. There is no doubt that the problems in the rental sector are part of the very significant challenges in the housing sector. The problems caused by high rents reflect, and are reflected in, the other issues facing the housing market, namely, not enough homes for first-time buyers, increased demand for social housing and unacceptable levels of homelessness. While many factors contribute to the problems, the one factor common to all of them is the chronic lack of supply of new houses.

That is borne out by the daft.iefigures on supply which reports that there were fewer than 3,100 homes available to rent nationwide on 1 May, down from almost 4,000 just three months previously. With just over 1,000 of those in Dublin, this is the lowest figure recorded since the series began in 2006.

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 meet their housing needs. Together with the strategy for the rental sector it sets out more than 100 actions the Government is taking through new policy, new legislation and innovative measures to achieve that aim. Supply measures include the use of publicly owned sites and the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government is engaging actively with local authorities in rent pressure zones to use publicly owned sites to kick-start supply. By way of example in this regard, Dublin City Council has brought forward a land initiative project covering three sites at O'Devaney Gardens, Oscar Traynor Road and St. Michael's Estate in Inchicore with which I am familiar, and is seeking partners to deliver a mix of social, affordable and private housing.

The Department is also supporting more build-to-rent development through pathfinder sites to help ensure a more supportive regulatory approach. In February, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, launched major infrastructure works on the Cherrywood site in Dublin costing €35 million, a first step towards the delivery of more than 1,300 new build-to-rent homes, which will start later this year.

The repair and lease scheme, under which local authorities will refurbish vacant properties and lease them from their owners, was rolled out nationwide in February, to bring vacant properties back into use. That will deliver 3,500 properties by 2021 at a cost of €150 million. Funding this year will cover getting 800 dwellings back into use for families on the social housing list.

See this speech in context