I call Deputy Adams who I know will be concise.

In March, the Tánaiste stated the Government would introduce legally sound legislation to protect tenants and this morning it was announced that the entire county of Louth would be designated a rent pressure zone. This will give little protection to people struggling to find accommodation or to tenants trying to hold on to their homes. The average rental cost for Louth is €1,206, which is an increase of 7.6% since last year and an increase of 44% since the Government took office. Will the Minister outline to us the legally sound legislation the Government will bring forward and if it will include a rent freeze and tax credit for renters?

We will have two for the price of one. I call Deputy Ó Laoghaire.

The rent pressure zone scheme is inadequate for several reasons. That it is not applied to the country as a whole is one of them and this has resulted in serious anomalies in some areas. There is a ward in Cork County Council where, as a result of the redrawing of boundaries, two thirds of it are in a rent pressure zone and one third of it is not. That is causing major confusion. It is the Tánaiste's ward and he told me that the issue would be sorted. There is no sign of that happening and it is causing major confusion for tenants and landlords because people are not sure where the boundary line is now.

Deputy Fitzpatrick wishes to raise a similar issue.

I welcome the announcement of the new rent pressure zone areas especially in my county of Louth where we have Ardee, Dundalk south and Dundalk north. On numerous occasions I have raised the issue of the 60 vacant houses in Louth and the 50 acres of land we have there. We need to build social and affordable houses. The last time I spoke on this issue the Minister of State, Deputy English, said that if Louth County Council could bring something to him on the issue he would consider it. It has something to bring to him now. I ask the Minister if the Government will engage with Louth County Council to help get people into these vacant houses. It also has some land.

I thank the Deputies for their questions. In respect of Deputy Adams’s question, we just passed the legislation referred to by the Tánaiste. This is the legislation to change the qualifying criteria for rent pressure zones. As a result of that, we announced the largest expansion of rent pressure zones today. Nineteen new zones will come in under that. We have also lengthened the notice period for tenants and given greater powers to the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, so that it can enforce rent pressure zones.

That legislation had the support of all parties in this House because these are important protections that we need to put in place for renters. What we see are rents that are still too high and rents that are still rising unsustainably. These measures have just come into law in tandem with the changes for short-term letting. That will, we believe, have a positive impact on the rental sector. However, we need now time for that to bed down. We will see that then in the next RTB data index when that is published.

On Deputy Fitzpatrick's question, Louth has been leading the way on vacancy in a number of areas. It has a vacant housing officer and a national programme and plan. If the Deputy gets in touch with the local authority, it will share its numbers with him, the different properties it has identified and what it plans to do with them.

I call Deputy Michael Moynihan.

Sorry, what of the anomalies?

On the changes that we made around the qualifying criteria, we have made two specific changes. We are seeing more areas come into rent pressure zones as a result of a change we made just last month because of the severe pressures that are being seen outside of places such as Dublin, the greater Dublin area, Cork and Galway.

The Minister misunderstood the question.

There cannot a second contribution. I am sorry but I have no control over ministerial answers.

There was a ward that was previously designated and an area was brought in.

I call Deputy Michael Moynihan.