Taoiseach Micheál Martin has claimed that the response to changes in Rent Pressure Zones has been exaggerated, calling it an “over the top” reaction to what he described as “modest” reforms, while denying that the Government was trying to frighten anyone, reports The Mirror.
Mr Martin also reaffirmed that Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) will, without doubt, be expanded across the country before the Dáil begins its summer break.
The planned changes will see Rent Pressure Zones implemented nationwide in the coming weeks, capping annual rent increases at 2 per cent or in line with inflation, whichever is lower, reports The Mirror.
Additional measures will introduce six-year leases and contracts of indefinite duration. Once the six-year term ends, or if a tenant leaves by choice, landlords will be permitted to reset the rent to current market levels.
Back in February, Mr Martin had indicated that the RPZ framework would be examined. When asked on RTÉ Radio whether the Government might phase out RPZs, he responded that solving housing challenges would “entail politically very difficult decisions” and that the absence of a “security of environment for investors” needed to be “stopped and changed”, reports The Mirror.
Speaking in Louth today, when questioned on whether he regretted floating ideas about ending RPZs, Mr Martin insisted that he never explicitly ruled out the possibility of retaining them.
He went on to describe the public reaction as exaggerated, stating that many would characterise the proposed changes as “modest”.
The Taoiseach said: “It wasn’t flying any kite. You see the substance this week. The response was over the top, not from you [the media] but from other politicians. The response was completely over the top. Everybody knew there was a review of the RPZ. It was announced in October last year. I did not refuse [to commit to them being kept in place]. I said they were being reviewed. The response to what I said was completely exaggerated and over the top and motivated by politics, not from the media,” reports The Mirror.
“But politicians came out and said in the Dáil in March, ‘You’re getting rid of our RPZs. I never said we were getting rid of RPZs. The Housing Agency was asked to do [a review]. It was commissioned in October last and people just raced away and said, ‘We’re getting rid of RPZs’. We never said we were getting rid of RPZs. What I did say was, unequivocally, we have to get private sector investment into housing. The Department of Finance are saying we need a €20 billion investment to get to 50,000. The State is doing €7bn to €8 billion. There has to be a private sector dimension to apartment building,” reports The Mirror.
“The challenge I put to the opposition is, where are your solutions to get to the €20bn investment level that’s estimated by the Department of Finance as necessary to underpin, you know, an increase from thirty odd thousand to 50,000. I said in the Dáil repeatedly, we are not getting rid of RPZ. I said repeatedly in exchanges with the Social Democrats, from Sinn Fein, but it was a great line. It was a great line to put the fear up people. I didn’t put the fear up anybody,” reports The Mirror.
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