Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I join with Deputy Doherty in extending my sympathy to all of those caught up in the very tragic and horrific plane crash this morning. We think of all of them and their families in what is an evolving story with, no doubt, more information to come.

I too want to extend my sympathies to the Deputy's colleague, Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh, on the loss of her mother. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dílis. We think of her at this time.

I thank Deputy Doherty for raising the important issues of rent, renters and housing supply. The Government took a number of decisions this week to extend rental supports and protections. Let us not forget that, prior to that decision, rent pressure zones were due to expire at the end of this year. Rental protections associated with that were due to disappear. The Government worked intensively to come up with a package that is balanced and provides an extension of the rent pressure zones. Many parts of the Deputy's county - I think the entire county - including Carndonagh, Buncrana, Lifford, Letterkenny, Milford, Glenties and Donegal town are not protected by rent pressure zones as of today. Under our proposal and the emergency legislation that we will bring forward next week, which I heard the Deputy's party leader say she will support, we will extend rent pressure zones to people living in Donegal and other parts of the country, including Carlow, Cavan, parts of Cork, Clare, Kerry, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Monaghan and elsewhere. We are extending rent pressure zones nationwide and we are also keeping, for existing tenants, the 2% rate.

It is important to recognise that the Government proposals did not fall from the sky. They are grounded in the Housing Agency's review of this matter. For those looking in at home, the Housing Agency is the body charged coming up with ideas and proposals as to how we can accelerate housing supply. That is what it is asked to do. We have published the report of the Housing Agency, which is a detailed document. I am sure Deputy Doherty has had the time to go through it. It outlined a number of findings, including how there has been evidence of meaningful price moderation due to the RPZs. It outlined how institutional investment has reduced considerably since 2023. It has also made a number of recommendations, including based on international literature review. It has come up with concerns around how we would actually go about reference rent and the challenges that would pose. Similar challenges were outlined by the ESRI. This is the latest measure to help to support renters.

The Deputy is continuing to misinform people. People in rental accommodation watching in today need to know that we have kept the RPZs for them and extended a protection that was due to end. People in the Deputy's county and in other counties who do not have the protection of RPZs need to know that next week we will bring forward legislation to extend those protections.

We also have to look at what we can do in regard to supply. The sons and daughters and other people who want to rent need more accommodation to be built. Therefore, we have taken a balanced approach that supports renters while also providing security, clarity and certainty for those who wish to invest in our country. Of course, this is the latest in a series of announcements to be made, which includes extending planning permissions, expanding exempted developments, extending the role of the Land Development Agency, the new national planning framework to have more zoned land and, very shortly, significant capital investment in water, wastewater and energy so that we can deliver that enabling infrastructure. All these measures need to be looked at in the round to try to get a functioning housing market that can get us to the 300,000 homes we need over the next number of years.

The measures in the package we have brought for this week are balanced. I was at the Cabinet meeting this week. It was always the intention that we would bring forward an initial Bill to extend rent pressure zones and then further legislation which we can take the time to tease through in order to get this right in terms of what the new system looks like from March.

See this speech in context