Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Second Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-04
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Albert Dolan (FF), Galway East

I rise to support the residential tenancies Bill 2026. I will begin by acknowledging the work of the Minister, Deputy Browne, and the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, in bringing forward this legislation, which tries to do something Ireland has struggled to do for far too long, that is, strike a fair balance between tenant protection and rental supply. I will say this clearly: we need that balance because the truth is that the system we currently have is not serving anybody properly. It is not serving the renters, who want security and certainty, and it is not serving landlords, who want clarity, fairness and a rental sector that is not constantly changing rules midstream.
The Bill gets a number of things right.
First, it introduces for the first time a national approach to rent regulation. Instead of the patchwork of rent pressure zones, we move to a more consistent, national framework where rent increases are linked to inflation using the consumer price index, CPI, and, critically, there remains a cap of 2% per annum to protect tenants during high inflation. Second, it strengthens tenant security through the introduction of rolling six-year tenancies of minimum duration for new tenancies, and that is being created from 1 March 2026. That is a major step in giving renters the stability that so many families are crying out for. Third, the Bill provides a pathway for new investment in supply, particularly in apartments, by linking rent increases for new apartments to inflation only, which is designed to support new building and attract investment into the sector.
There is, therefore, a lot in the Bill to support. I support it because it is rooted in the reality we cannot ignore. If we do not grow supply, rents will remain high and pressure will remain unbearable. I also commend the Minister on recognising something many in this House have been slow to acknowledge, namely that a rental market where rents cannot be reset between tenancies becomes one that people exit. That is why the Bill provides for rent to reset to market rates in specific circumstances, particularly where tenancies have ended or between tenancies at the end of a six-year period while also putting safeguards in place to prevent economic evictions. That is the correct direction of travel.
I also want to raise concerns that have been brought to my attention and that I am hearing repeatedly in my clinics in Galway East. I want to raise them honestly and frankly because these concerns are real. In my clinics, I meet people who are not corporate landlords, not vulture landlords or not large investors but ordinary people, such as a farmer who bought a small house years ago for retirement income, a couple with one rental property to support a mortgage or a widow who rents out a property to top up her pension. These are people who did what the State told them to do for decades.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:35+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-04