Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would have to see the recommendations and remind myself of them and then respond to the Deputy. In terms of the substantive issue, everyone in this House, and certainly the Government, is very aware of the impact that rising rents are having on many people. In some cases they risk driving people into homelessness. In many cases people are required to pay a huge portion of their post-tax incomes in rent, thus leaving very little money for other costs, whether child care or the many other costs of living. We acknowledge absolutely that rising rents are having an enormous impact on people, particularly those who are struggling to make ends meet.

That is exactly why we introduced the rent pressure zones. Let us not forget what they do. They now cover more than half of people who are tenants and those people now have their rent increases capped at 4% or less. They are not covered in the statistics published today by daft.iebecause, as it acknowledges, they cover only new properties and new tenancies. Most people who are renting have been protected by the rent pressure zones and face rent increases of less than 4% as a result of actions taken by this Government and Oireachtas. Those whose rent has not gone up, or has gone up by less than 4%, will be very glad that is in place.

The daft.iefigures do not cover people covered by the 4% cap in the rent pressure zones, people already in properties. They refer to new tenancies and properties and it is a relatively small sample. There will be a bigger sample from the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, when its numbers come out. They will cover rents paid as opposed to the asking rent.

The Government is doing many things but there are some major things. One is enhancing the powers of the RTB, turning it into a real regulator with more enforcement powers. Another is taking measures to encourage landlords, and it is important that we encourage them to stay in the private rental sector and that more come into it. That is being done by measures such as restoring mortgage interest relief which had been reduced to 75% during the economic crisis and has been increased towards between 80% and 85% in recent times.

We are getting building again. It is very important that we build again. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government is working on new guidelines, especially on apartment building to make it more economic to build apartments in our cities where housing is most needed. The Deputy mentioned student accommodation and there has been an explosion in the amount of student accommodation in recent years. It is being built and provided throughout the country and that will have an impact.

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