Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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193. To ask the Minister for Finance if his Department studied the recent report by a company (details supplied) in respect of residential rent increases; the work which has been carried out in conjunction with the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government on this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36975/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Finance monitors developments in the residential rental market on an ongoing basis. My Department uses data from daft.ie, the Central Statistics Office, the Residential Tenancies Board and myhome.ie to monitor rental prices as well as the supply and stock of rental properties. 

Rental market policy is primarily the responsibility of my colleague the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government and his Department leads on work in that area. The Government’s primary response to mitigating rental inflation is to increase supply of residential property. ‘Rebuilding Ireland: An Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness’ sets out a comprehensive package of actionable measures designed to restore the housing market to a sustainable equilibrium.

Officials from my Department regularly meet with officials from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to discuss housing policy. The Department of Finance is leading the work on the establishment of Home Building Finance Ireland, which will provide finance to home builders on a commercial basis and further improve the supply of residential property in areas where it is needed.

The construction sector is expanding strongly, and this is now feeding into the growing supply of residential property. New house completions in the four quarters to Q2 2018 are up 40 per cent to 16,314, while planning permission was granted for 8,405 units in Q1 2018, up 81 per cent on Q1 2017. This growing supply response will mitigate the pressure on residential rents.