Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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21. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will support measures to reduce rents given the crisis caused by rising rent costs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54653/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The solution to dealing with the rental market challenges is to provide for increased supply of homes. Housing for All – A New Housing Plan for Ireland does that through a range of interventions and unprecedented investment with in excess of €20 billion in funding over the next five years.

Housing for All lays the foundation for an entirely new housing tenure in Ireland, Cost Rental, which will be a game changer for rent affordability. Approximately 18,000 Cost Rental homes will be delivered by Local Authorities, Approved Housing Bodies and the Land Development Agency  between now and 2030. In building to this scale, with an average of 2,000 Cost Rental homes per year, the State will provide certain focused funding supports to help delivery partners provide rental homes that target affordable rents at levels in the order of 25% below market rents. Delivery of Cost Rental at scale will have a stabilising effect on the wider rental market.

The Residential Tenancies (No. 2) Act 2021 introduced measures in July 2021 to better protect tenants with affordability challenges by extending the operation of Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) until the end of 2024 and prohibiting any necessary rent increase in a RPZ from exceeding general inflation, as recorded by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP).

When introducing these measures, I was very clear on the need to carefully monitor inflation. At that time, HICP inflation averaged 0.73% p.a. over the previous 3 years but had risen to 1.6% p.a. in the year ending June 2021. I needed to revise the RPZ rent control relatively quickly in July, on a basis that could be independently verified.

To address the rent affordability challenges building on foot of the fast rising inflation rate, as recorded by HICP (CSO preliminary data for October 2021 shows HICP inflation of 5.1% p.a.), I secured Government approval on 4 November to introduce a cap on rent increases in RPZs of no more than 2% per annum pro rata. In effect, this will mean that rents may only increase by HICP inflation or 2%, whichever is the lower. The Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill 2021 will be published shortly and is intended for priority enactment as soon as possible in December.