The Tánaiste has said emergency legislation to extend Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) to all parts of the country will be brought forward next week.
Simon Harris told the Dáil that this will afford greater protections to renters in areas such as Kerry and Donegal which are currently not covered by the RPZs.
He said that the legislation around the bigger reforms, which will be introduced after 1 March, will be advanced at a later stage.
Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty claimed the Government was scrambling around like headless chickens.
He described the rent reforms as a total botch job and a charter for higher rents.
The Donegal TD said groups like students and young people will be hit hardest by the changes because they move most frequently from one rental property to another.
Original reports suggested that the entire country could be made a Rent Pressure Zone before the Dáil rises for its summer break in mid-July.
It is understood the Minister for Housing, James Browne, is advancing legislative plans to that effect and hopes the measure can become law swiftly.
It is anticipated that Opposition parties will their give their support to fast-track the process, even though they vociferously oppose other parts of the Government’s rental reforms which were passed by the Cabinet on Tuesday.
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The change would mean that all tenancy increases would be limited to an annual cap of 2%, or the rate of inflation – whichever is lower.
As it stands, roughly a fifth of tenancies are outside of RPZs and therefore are not subject to the 2% cap.
A swift introduction of legislation would limit the ability of landlords outside of RPZ’s to increase rents beyond the cap limit before the law is changed.
After Tuesday’s Cabinet decision, Minister Browne indicated that the designation of the entire country as an RPZ would be taken swiftly.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said in the Dáil that the measure should be introduced this week, adding that her party would back the Oireachtas sitting for as long as is necessary to get the job done.
The party’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said the Government is “scrambling around” under pressure from the Opposition.
“The department told journalists on Tuesday that the RPZ extension would take place in March 2026. After Opposition highlighted that this would put renters outside RPZs at risk of huge rent hikes, in anticipation of the application of the caps the Government changed the plan and are proposing to deal with this issue more quickly,” he said.
“We welcome this but continue to insist that the Government scrap the rest of their proposed changes to RPZs as these will lead to a hollowing out of the existing protections and significant rent increases for tens of thousands of renters.”
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