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Updated 11.36am
MINISTER FOR HOUSING Simon Coveney has defended the government’s rental strategy, but said it will not be going through before Christmas.
Fianna Fáil has heavily criticised government proposals to limit rent increases in “rent-pressure zones” in Dublin and Cork.
Yesterday, Minister Coveney brought proposals to Cabinet that will cap rent increases in designated zones of Cork city and Dublin city and county to 4% a year over a three-year period.
Fianna Fáil’s education spokesman Thomas Byrne says the 4% limit is too high, but ruled out seeking to link rent hikes to the consumer price index. He said Fianna Fáil was working through the night on its own proposals.
Speaking this morning, Coveney said the 4% rise was non-negotiable, and the government would not support any amendment to reduce the rent cap to 2%.
He also that if Fianna Fáil wants to oppose the 4% cap, then the legislation underpinning the Government’s rental strategy will pass before Christmas, which is something the party “will have to take on themselves”.
The measures are due to be tabled today. Minister Coveney reportedly failed, however, to persuade Cabinet to approve linking rent increases to the consumer price index.
The rental plan designated Dublin and Cork city as rent pressure zones because annual rents there have risen by at least 7% in four of the past six quarters. The average rent in both ‘high-pressure zones’ is also above the national average in the last quarter.
“I’ve been minister for housing for six months,” Coveney told Today with Sean O’Rourke on RTÉ this morning.
“Within the first 74 days we had a housing strategy agreed, which is agreeing to spend €5.5 billion on social housing, to increase the number by almost 50,000 [houses].
We said on that day that we would have a rental strategy by the end of the year, and we have delivered that. We have increased the budget for housing next year.
He said that the Budget included a big package for first-time buyers, which he said has fundamentally changed the housing market for first-time buyers.
Airbnb
“As a result, developers are planning to build a lot more houses, starter homes, for first-time buyers.
“Planning permissions are up, commencements are up…. We are expecting that next
year An Bord Pleanála will see up to 50 applications for more than 100 houses across the country on individual sites.”
He said that, in Galway, in seven years, there has been one application for a housing estate, while Tipperary has seen none, adding:
We are changing the market, and it’s working, and we’re starting to see momentum build in the property market.
He also said the department is looking at the effects of Airbnb on the rental market.
“Anybody who plans to use Air Bnb effectively for a B&B or a hotel-style operation, they will have to go to their local authority for a change of use in terms of planning,” he said.
“The priority here is protecting tenants from a very dysfunctional market at the moment.”
Major decision
Writing in TheJournal.ie, Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin said the measures could amount to an average €4,500 rent hike over the next three years for renters in Dublin city. Renters in Cork city, meanwhile, could be hit with a bill for €3,200, he said.
Fianna Fáil broadly supports the strategy, but wants the rent-pressure zones extended to Galway, Limerick, Waterford and parts of the commuter counties and the 4% figure lowered.
“Now what’s happened here really is a procedural nightmare,” education spokesman Thomas Byrne told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today.
Once again, coming up to Christmas, the government is going to make a major decision which is going to have major consequences.
“And, quite frankly, in this case, we’re going to have to take action. Because it’s extremely market-sensitive, and if action isn’t taken this week, then the rental market could go off…
He added: “This is extremely sensitive, not only in terms of the rental market but also the stock exchange, and the Dáil can’t be in that space. We must show the public that we can actually effect change, and make a real difference in people’s lives.”
‘Crazy’
Byrne said Fianna Fáil housing spokesman Barry Cowen has been in discussions with Minister Coveney regarding the 4%, and the geographic areas covered by the measures.
Fine Gael junior minister Damien English last night ruled out any change to the 4% measure on RTÉ’s Primetime. Byrne said Fianna Fáil could in theory amend the government’s measures without Fine Gael support, but added:
We want to engage in fruitful discussions on this with the government.
He said the minister’s approach has resulted in procedural chaos.
“Our teams have been working throughout the night on this, and government have been as well. It’s not the way to do this.
The government is tabling this not as an existing bill, but as four-stage amendments to an existing bill that’s already gone through the Dáil.
That is due for discussion, we think, tomorrow, and amendments have to be in today. It’s crazy stuff.
“Government amendments that are going to amend this have to be in by 1pm today.
“It’s the same every year, they don’t seem to have learnt their lessons about rushing legislation in before Christmas.
Broadly, we think… a lot of the difficulty we would have with this strategy – there are more measures that are coming in for this time next year, rather than for this time this year.
Byrne said that, at this point, it’s unclear when Fianna Fáil’s amendment will happen, but said the party is seeking tax breaks for landlords.
“We would like to see more stuff in terms of landlords,” he added, insisting he meant small-time landlords, rather than REITs (vulture) funds who have snapped up large swathes of Irish property.
“We think they do deserve a tax break, in terms of restoring the full interest deduction which is available.”
This morning, Minister Coveney said Fianna Fáil should have proposed any changes to tax incentives before the Budget, rather than six weeks afterwards.
Landlords
Asked whether Fianna Fáil would link proposed tax breaks for landlords with greater security for tenants, Byrne said the Constitution precludes an opposition party from tabling a finance bill.
Byrne said the party’s proposals are somewhere in between the 4% cap and linking rent increases to the consumer price index.
The party’s proposals are based on the average of rents over the past five years, allowing for increases in some areas but a ban on increases in other areas.
We think the 4% is just too high – it’s a price increase. It certainly should be lower, I’m not going to put a figure on it.
As of October, there were 3,486 homeless adults and children in the State, three times what the figure was three years ago.
There are 142 people, meanwhile, sleeping rough in Dublin city alone.
“Certainly the housing supply needs to be increased,” Byrne said.
“And that’s not happening fast enough, because they need houses… a lot of the single people who are homeless would be ideal for bedsits.”
Wouldn’t surprise me.
Gaddaffi was a lovely man until he wanted to introduce the gold dinar for the sale of oil.
Then the eu and the usa shat themselves.
The eu/usa murdered tens of thousands of Libyans for oil and is murdering people on a daily basis with the bullshit “arab spring”.
Nothing would surprise me about the eu.
Gadaffi was a lovely man?? Whatever your views on western foreign policy in the region, thats nonsense!
Re Side View Bob.
You are spot on.
Re Mattoid.
Gaddafi was loved by his people.
Libya under Gaddafi was a beacon of light compared to present day and was the envy of the African continent until NATO ransacked and pillaged the country.
B Lowe I didnt know you knew what people in Libya thought of Gaddafi. Actually you dont my familyare Libyan and they live in Libya (fought in the uprising as well) and they will tell you it was know shining light it hardly had lights let alone enough food. Yes the U.k France and America wantedhim out for the oil but the people wanted him out because he was an evil dictator
Jamie,
“uprisng”
no Libyan could call what happened in Libya an “uprising” the brits/yanks used bastardized forces to gain control of the oil.
The brits/yanks will tell you that al Qaeda/taliban are there evil enemies but they have no problem arming them when it suits them.
Libya was a beacon of light.
You Jamie, are a bullshytter
The awkward moment when someone makes a derisive comment citing someone else’s spelling mistake and then makes a silly grammar mistake..
Their their, it’s not so bad! :-)
So your’e saying my father isnt Libyan,and didn’t fight? You are talking about somethimg you know nothing about, Im left wing mate but just because the west got involved doesnt mean it was all a western plan. Yeah they did jump on board and took advantage of it for there own personal gain. But Libya was no beacon of hope. Libya is in a awful way at the moment whatever notion of calm and government control in the media is lies it lawless my father has compared to Somalia where the warlords roamed in the 90s
Gadaffi may have had great intentions for the people of Libya and his economic policies certainly benefited all but power does eventually corrupt. Everything else is pretty spot on thou.
jamie,
i know more about libya than you or your father.
your use of british isms tells me a lot about you.
is jamie david thompson?
Under the al-Gaddafi government the Libyan people were denied fundamental human rights, abused, oppressed, imprisoned, tortured and silenced. Many of the abuses being used by armed militias in Libya today are replicating the abuses carried out by the former Libyan government. Amnesty International has decades of reports and evidence of documented human rights abuses by the former Libyan government on an appalling scale.
Human rights is not about picking a side, being pro al-Gaddafi or being anti western or supporting rebels or NATO’s intervention. It’s about condemning human rights abuses regardless of which side carries them out. Both sides during the conflict in Libya carried out human rights abuses that in some cases would be tantamount to war crimes.
The current Libyan government is not doing enough to protect the human rights of its people, and armed militias involved in the conflict have refused to disband and are engaged in widespread torture. As our report today shows, refugees and migrants to Libya are being treated appalling. Those are the issues we should be trying to address.
Re Amnesty.
Your first paragraph could be applied to the US. Change Libya under Gaddafi to America under Bush/Obama and it’s hard not to see striking similarities.
Both countries have engaged in what you described in your piece.
I don’t disagree with that. The use of torture by the US is something Amnesty International has frequently highlighted, along with the use of drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Criticising the human rights record of one ‘side’, doesn’t mean anyone should turn a blind eye to the violations committed by the other.
“Under ff/lab/fg governments the irish people are being denied fundamental human rights, abused, oppressed, imprisoned, tortured and silenced”.
Where was amnesty when donegal/sligo people were being framed, tortured and imprisoned?
Where is/was amnesty international when the families of those murdered by the british in dublin and monaghan need/ needed them?
What’s amnesty’s stance on state controlled media?
i could go on.
Amnesty are sickening hypocrites
@Blowe
“Both sides have engaged in what you described in your piece”
So you do acknowledge that Gaddafi wasn’t the benign “beacon of light” you portrayed in your earlier comment?
@Amnesty
Unfortunately it appears that no matter what human rights abuses are documented and how compelling the evidence, there will always be those who will choose to disregard it if it doesn’t fit with their chosen ideological viewpoint.
“Under ff/lab/fg governments the irish people are being denied fundamental human rights, abused, oppressed, imprisoned, tortured and silenced”.
Where was amnesty when donegal/sligo people were being framed, tortured and imprisoned?
Where is/was amnesty international when the families of those murdered by the british in dublin and monaghan need/ needed them?
What’s amnesty’s stance on state controlled media?
i could go on.
Amnesty are sickening hypocrites
sorry, that was meant to go with amnestys bullshit, see below.
The Janus faced Troll known as Side View Bob aka Thomond Park & Aviva Park (caught out claiming false journalistic credentials resurfaces as Limerick Boy and now appears in his current form. No doubt this muppet has also many other guises.
have your say