Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 18 seeks to amend section 128 of the Act of 2004 to include the amount of rent payable under a tenancy in the published register. This proposal was debated previously during the passage of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2019 and during Private Members' time. Section 29 of the 2019 Act amends section 151 of the principal Act to require the Minister to request the RTB to provide to him specific information relating to rent levels in the private rental sector. The Minister is required to make such a request of the RTB at an appropriate time during the three months' time frame immediately after the first year of the operation of the annual registration of tenancies. The Minister will be required to provide the RTB with no more than three months to comply with the request. The RTB will be legally required to comply with that request. In turn, the Minister will be legally required to report on the prevailing private rents in the Houses of the Oireachtas within three months of the date on which the RTB is to provide him with the requisite information. I accept that the provision is less impactful than our collective wish in 2019 for a full published rent register, but as legislators we must operate within the legal framework.The Minister will report to the Oireachtas on rent levels. To be useful, I do think that a minimum of one year's worth of rental data collected via annual registration by the RTB would be required to inform a meaningful report on the matter. Once the RTB has sight of the annual rental data, a sense can be developed of what might be possible in terms of enhancing rent transparency at a local level.

It is the Minister's intention to commence the provisions relating to annual registration of tenancies in quarter 1 2022 just as the RTB's ICT infrastructure is ready. For this reason I cannot accept amendment No. 18.