Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is only on one road. It is something we need to tackle. We have the Croí Conaithe grant. That was an effort to bring more of those properties back into the rental market, but clearly we need to do more. My answer covers many of the situations where a house can be taken back from a tenant and covers some of the taxation, but obviously a lot of the tax matters the Deputy mentioned would be for the Minister for Finance. I will certainly bring it back.

I assure the House that as set out in the programme for Government, this Government remains focused on growing the supply of much-needed rental accommodation and commits to continuing its support for renters and landlords, along with tackling vacancy and dereliction with enhanced compulsory purchase order powers and an ambitious grant system. The Government appreciates a landlord may sometimes need to take back possession of their property. Where a tenancy is of less than six months' duration, a landlord is not required to cite a reason for any notice of termination. In general, after six months the landlord must state in the notice of termination one or more of the following reasons: the tenant has failed to comply with the obligations of the tenancy; the dwelling is no longer suited to the needs of the occupying household; the landlord intends to sell the dwelling within nine months of the termination date; the landlord requires the dwelling for own or family member occupation; vacant possession is required for substantial refurbishment of the dwelling; or the landlord intends to change the use of the dwelling. The Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, established as an independent statutory body under the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004 to 2024, provides a tenancy dispute resolution service.

In 2024, my Department completed a review of the rental sector. This review noted clear challenges with the current system of rent controls while acknowledging the need to ensure the regulatory system for the rental market adequately balances the interests of landlords and tenants. My Department requested that the Housing Agency undertake a review to assess the operation of rent controls and it is expected that this review will be completed by the end of March 2025. The review will also consider the recommendations of the Housing Commission relating to rent regulation. Any potential future policy options that arise from this review will be considered by the Government. The Minister for Finance has responsibility for taxation measures but recent tax measures have been of benefit to the sector. These include the amount of tax deductible pre-letting expenditure being doubled to €10,000 in respect of a property that lay vacant for six months, which was reduced from 12 months; the introduction of the residential premises rental income relief to benefit landlords with relief worth up to €600 this year and rising to up to €1,000 from 2026; and the rent tax credit being increased to €1,000 per renter, backdated to 2024.

There are, therefore, measures there. I have set out the situations where a tenancy can be ended, but the Deputy is right. Most landlords out there have perhaps one or two properties for rent. They are not making extraordinary amounts of money out of it, but at the same time it has to make sense for them to stay in the market. That is why we have an issue. Many of these rental properties are being sold into private ownership and that may not necessarily be someone with a housing need or who is looking for a first home. We need to do it. We need to listen. We need to go back to the Minister for Finance and look at taxation, etc. This is an issue not just in Kerry but in west Cork as well and it needs to be addressed. We need to get vacant properties back into the rental market.

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