Waterford rent increases
Deputy Butler highlighted steep rent rises in Waterford and said the city was excluded from the original rent pressure zones. Minister Murphy said rents were too high in many areas, that the zones had been reviewed, and that new legislation and RTB enforcement powers would follow.
All leave is cancelled but there is nothing being done to deal with what is going on.
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The Minister gave a flippant answer the last time. Lives are at risk here.
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The Deputy is well over her time.
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Leave being cancelled is in no way sufficient. We need extra resources like Dublin and Limerick got before somebody is killed. He does not give a damn.
Comment on this
Page 19 of the programme for Government speaks about ending the housing shortages and mentions the difficulties facing people renting accommodation. The latest daft.ie report was extremely bad news for Waterford city which saw one of the biggest increases in the cost of rent by a massive 19.7% year-on-year with an average rent of €955. There is absolutely no end in sight for hard-pressed people trying to pay rent every month. Waterford was not included in the initial rent pressure zones for the 4% cap on rent increases. When will we see a review of the rent pressure zones to incorporate this new up-to-date data?
Comment on this
I thank the Deputy for the question. We had the daft.ie report very recently. We have the report coming from the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, in December for the third quarter. It works to a much more comprehensive data set. It will tell us that rents are increasing and that in many parts of the country rents are too high and unsustainably high for people who are trying to pay them and trying to get by and meet all those other bills.
Comment on this
The rent pressure zones have been reviewed. Legislation will come to the House very shortly that will strengthen the rent pressure zones and also allow new enforcement powers for the RTB as well as the money that was provided to it in the budget for 2019. I am in discussions with the RTB on the qualifying criteria for the rent pressure zones because it is something we need to keep under review constantly as we continue to deal with the shortage we have in housing. The CSO has released recent data for increases in construction of housing completions which are continuing to trend upwards by the thousands each quarter.