Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I was very clear at the time as to why I was bringing these measures through more quickly than I intended originally, that is, to deal with the 4% issue. On 8 July, I stated clearly in the House that, effectively, I would monitor it and keep it under review. I do not intend to delay on this issue. This was the fifth rent measure we brought forward within the 12-month period. I want to bring legislation forward in this term. We are working on it at the moment. The legislation I brought through the Houses in July means that we can also use other indices to look at capping those rent increases. Rents are too high. It was previously the case that rent increases were too high. That is why I brought in this legislation. We hope inflation will come down and that it will come down in the short to medium term but in that instance we have to consider other ways of capping to ensure it does not go above 4% and I intend to do that in this session. The joint committee will be involved in that also.

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