Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Question 1193: To ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform the measures he is taking to ban upward-only rent reviews for existing businesses not provided for by the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009. [33994/10]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I am very conscious of the problems which confront the commercial rental sector and, at a practical level, I have undertaken to progress the recommendations of the Working Group on transparency in commercial rent reviews which was published in August. Among those recommendations is the adoption, by landlords and tenants alike, of a rent review arbitration code which is intended to achieve a uniform and transparent procedure for the resolution of disputes in the sector. The recommendations also deal with the establishment of a public database containing relevant details of letting arrangements and rent reviews in the commercial property market.

The Deputy will recall that, because of significant legal constraints, it was not possible to apply the provision at Section 132 of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009 in a retrospective manner, i.e., where the lease in question had been entered into prior to the commencement of that section. Those legal constraints continue to exist. They were recognised by Members of the Deputy's Party during the Debate on Section 132 of the Act.