Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for their questions. In respect of Deputy Adams’s question, we just passed the legislation referred to by the Tánaiste. This is the legislation to change the qualifying criteria for rent pressure zones. As a result of that, we announced the largest expansion of rent pressure zones today. Nineteen new zones will come in under that. We have also lengthened the notice period for tenants and given greater powers to the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, so that it can enforce rent pressure zones.

That legislation had the support of all parties in this House because these are important protections that we need to put in place for renters. What we see are rents that are still too high and rents that are still rising unsustainably. These measures have just come into law in tandem with the changes for short-term letting. That will, we believe, have a positive impact on the rental sector. However, we need now time for that to bed down. We will see that then in the next RTB data index when that is published.

On Deputy Fitzpatrick's question, Louth has been leading the way on vacancy in a number of areas. It has a vacant housing officer and a national programme and plan. If the Deputy gets in touch with the local authority, it will share its numbers with him, the different properties it has identified and what it plans to do with them.

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