Written answers

Thursday, 5 March 2020

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Rent Pressure Zones

Photo of Michael McGrathMichael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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1186. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the fact that part of Carrigaline, County Cork not in the former Ballincollig-Carrigaline local electoral area is still not in a rent pressure zone; if the anomaly will be corrected; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2618/20]

Photo of Eoghan MurphyEoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The Ballincollig- Carraigaline Local Electoral Area (LEA) was designated a Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ)  on 27 January 2017 under section 24 of the Residential Tenancies Acts (2004-2019).

New Local Electoral Areas and Municipal Districts were signed into law on 31 January 2019 for Cork City and County (which took into account the expanded Cork City boundary) for the May 2019 local elections.  The new LEAs and Municipal Districts see the old Ballincollig-Carrigaline LEA being split, with Ballincollig becoming part of Cork City Council.   Carraigaline and its hinterland are now contained within its own LEA and Municipal District, which is wholly within the remit of Cork County Council. 

The areas within the new Carraigaline LEA which were designated as a RPZ under the old Ballincollig- Carraigaline LEA remain designated as a RPZ under section 24A(6) of the Residential Tenancies Acts, which provides that  “Where a local electoral area is prescribed by order as a rent pressure zone and, subsequently, any local electoral areas are duly amended in a manner that affects the area of the local electoral area so prescribed, then the order shall continue to have effect as if the local electoral area concerned had not been so amended.”

Therefore, under Section 24A(6), areas already designated as RPZs will remain designated and areas that are not designated nor due to become part of Cork City Council will retain their current undesignated status.  Areas within the new Carraigaline LEA that were not previously designated as a RPZ remain undesignated.

Under the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2019 the expiry date of all deemed and designated RPZs is extended to 31 December 2021. The Act further provides that any area falling within the new Cork City Council boundary, which is not already within a RPZ, will be a RPZ from 31 May 2019. 

The Housing Agency and the RTB will continue to monitor national rents and if the Carraigaline LEA meets the designation criteria it will be designated as a RPZ.

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