The Government’s rental plan has been criticised in the Dáil for lacking measures around real rent certainty, writes Elaine Loughlin.
Labour leader Brendan Howlin has claimed that everyone apart from the Government and Fianna Fáil now agrees that rent control is needed.
“This view is shared by Threshold, Focus Ireland, the Simon Community, the Peter McVerry Trust and the National Economic and Social Council,” Mr Holwin said.
“As the Taoiseach knows, rent regulation is the norm in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden,” he told the Dáil.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said the plan “lacks ambition” and the most glaring omission was the absence of a system of rent certainty linking annual rent reviews to the consumer price index, as proposed by the Dáil Committee on Housing and Homelessness.
Mr Adams told the Dáil: “What has been produced is an ad hoc package by an ad hoc Government supported by an ad hoc Fianna Fáil Party that plucks the arbitrary figure of 4% out of nowhere to be applied to rent increases annually in Dublin and Cork.”
Speaking during Leader’s Questions, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the housing and rental crisis is and “complex” issue that is “not easy to resolve”.
“The fundamental flaw in the situation that has arisen regarding the construction sector has been the lack of supply of housing.”
Mr Kenny added that the caps placed on rents in Dublin and Cork are “not a blanket intervention in the market for an indefinite period” but said they were focused on targeted areas which have been deemed “rent pressure zones”.
