Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I want to pursue the detail of this. If one looks at the rent index published by the RTB in December, just before Christmas, Limerick city west and Limerick city east both have average rents of over €1,000. In the case of Limerick city east, it is €1,103.57. The national average is €1,122. They both meet the criteria for the number of quarterly increases of over 7%, which is required under the legislation. They are almost there in both cases. Both of those local electoral areas include rural areas which have low rents. As I understand it, the Minister can make regulations that would use electoral districts rather than local electoral areas to determine inclusion in rent pressure zones. I ask the Minister to look at it. I took two of the three Limerick city local electoral areas, both of which have very high rents in places like Dooradoyle and Castletroy. They are areas where rents are very high, where there are quite a large number of rental properties and people are under huge pressure. If the formula was applied to the district rather than the local electoral area then those areas would qualify because the rents are higher than the national average and they have more than reached the 7% increases in four of the last six quarters. After two years of this legislation, I ask the Minister to review the process so renters in Limerick can have the pressure taken off them.

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