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

The Deputy has raised a lot of questions there and I would like to spend a lot of time answering them because this is a brief with which I am very familiar and in which I am still very involved. To answer her direct question regarding a rent freeze, I do not think it is a good idea, not because I do not want to introduce measures that provide relief for renters but because the core of the problem is a lack of supply. We looked at this issue when I was the Minister with responsibility for housing and we decided, for the first time in the history of the State, effectively to introduce rent caps in Ireland, which now apply to about 65% of all rental properties in the country, whereby there is a limit of no more than 4% of a rent increase per year linked to those properties enforced by the system. We went through a long consultation process with all stakeholders listening to people who were under pressure in terms of their rent but also listening to people who want to invest in the rental market to provide more rental properties. We should not be making short-term decisions now that seem popular but which actually contribute significantly to limiting supply. Instead we need an appropriate response where rents are high to keep a cap on rental inflation, which is what is happening with rent pressure zones. That is getting the balance right between ensuring that while we build much more social and affordable housing and while the private sector also delivers much more housing, including affordable housing, we continue to see that momentum for supply growth and that we do not shut it off by introducing dramatic measures that will undermine the confidence in the willingness to invest in the property market.

The Deputy is now calling for a rent freeze across the country even in parts of it where rents are not particularly high. We need to target areas where there is real heat and pressure. That is what rent pressure zones and the criteria around them do and we know that it is working in terms of the statistics. The real problem in this market is supply. We are addressing the supply issue but it is going to take some time because we cannot build houses overnight. We need to protect renters as we are doing and as we will continue to do while the pressure is as it is, but we also need to ensure we deal with the supply challenge because, ultimately, that is the solution.

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