Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the launch today of the Private Residential Tenancies Board, PRTB, Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, national rent index, a valuable source of information on what is happening in the rental market. It shows Dublin rents increased by 8.4% in the first three months of this year and that the average rent in Dublin is twice as much as in the rest of the country, €637 outside Dublin and €1,227 in Dublin. Unfortunately, Threshold declares rent increases are higher than those figures suggest and its clients report rent increases of 20% to 40%. As the declared rents that are included in the PRTB ESRI index do not reflect the practice of topping up whereby tenants make payments under the counter, the declared rents are not the same as the real rents being charged. This has a number of repercussions, not least on the Revenue's tax take. Could the Leader arrange a debate on rent control, particularly on what needs to be done legislatively to bring about better security of tenure for people in the rented sector? The number of people living in private rented housing has more than doubled to one in five nationally and one in three in Dublin, and it is even higher in Galway. Given the severity of the issue of rent increases, it is a matter of urgency.