Rent pressure zones were originally introduced to protect areas where households are having the greatest difficulty finding affordable accommodation. According to recent reports, pretty much the whole country fits that definition. Will the Government commit to using the rent pressure zone legislation to roll out a general protection to all renters from spiralling rents or even commit to reviewing legislation to provide greater protection to all citizens from spiralling rent pressure?

We acknowledge that rents are very high in Ireland. That is why we introduced the rent tax credit in the budget to help renters with the cost of renting. One of the interesting things fin the daft.ie report released yesterday showed that for people who are established tenants, that is, the vast majority of tenants, rents went up by approximately 3.5%, which is slower than average incomes are rising and well lower than the general rate of inflation. However, rents are really high for new-to-market tenancies. Unfortunately, one of the problems with rent and price controls is that they provide at least some protection for people who are established renters but those who pay the price are those who need to move and new renters. New properties coming online are expensive. I do not know what we can do about that, other than ramp up supply and cost-rental housing. That is the difficulty with rent pressure zones.