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

I listened to the Senator at those meetings. The points she made were correct and we are changing the qualifying criteria. The calculation used involved rent being above the national average - which included and still includes Dublin - and having above 7% rent inflation in four of the past six quarters. We recognised that it was very unlikely that more areas would come into a rent pressure zone because even though rents there may be increasing at 10%, 11% or 12% per quarter, they would never catch the national average because Dublin rents were pushing it up so high. As a result, we are taking Dublin out of the equation when we look at the greater Dublin area, GDA, and other counties, and we are taking the GDA out of the equation for the other new qualifying criteria when looking at the remaining counties.As a result of that, I anticipate, based on the inflation data that we have seen from the RTB, that more areas are going to be rent pressure zones, RPZs, which is very welcome. That will be a significant change emanating from this Bill. We have talked about the reforms in the Bill but it is important that the public understands exactly how sweeping it is and what that will mean for people who are not covered by these regulations and laws but who will now be covered and protected.