O’SULLIVAN REPEATS CALL FOR RENT CERTAINTY

Labour spokesperson on Housing, Planning and Local Government, Jan O’Sullivan, is calling on the Government to introduce measures to bring certainty for renters.

It comes after the latest rental figures from property website Daft.ie show residential rents have soared nationally by 11.7 per cent year-on year in the third quarter- the highest annual rate of rental inflation since 2002.

Deputy O’Sullivan said:

“These latest rental figures make for grim reading, and show that the issue of rising rents is no longer just a Dublin problem. Cork City rents rose by 14.4 per cent to September, and in my own constituency of Limerick City, rents are up by 13.2 per cent in the past year. Dublin rents are also up by 12.1 per cent.

I would ask the Government to bring certainty and comfort to people and families who are continuing to face these rising rents. As my colleague Brendan Howlin recently pointed out to the Taoiseach in the Dáil, there is no point putting money into rent supplement or housing assistance payment schemes, as the Government has done in the Budget, if there are no measures to control the surge in rents.

While peoples’ salaries are not back to pre-Celtic Tiger figures, it is clear that rents are now rising beyond this. The Labour Party has argued that linking rent to the consumer price index would ensure rent increases remain affordable and related directly to the general cost of living.

The Taoiseach himself has said the Government is committed to publishing a comprehensive rental strategy before the end of this Dáil session. Will this include measures to bring about rent certainty for the hundreds of thousands of renters in Ireland struggling to pay bills this Christmas?