Rental Sector Dail Éireann — 2026-02-18 ============================================================ Christopher O'Sullivan (FF), Cork South-West I thank the Deputy. Fair play to him for advocating, especially on behalf of those who are coming in to him in desperation and looking for a house to rent. I understand the frustration. We all have it in our constituencies. I will try to outline what the Government is trying to do to free up rental accommodation. Ireland's new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, is a wide-ranging action plan focused on housing supply and targeting homelessness. The plan contains a suite of actions that will increase the supply of much-needed rental accommodation, by keeping existing landlords in the market and attracting new landlords, while ensuring strong and balanced tenancy protections for tenants and landlords. The Government is establishing a more robust legal and policy framework to support increased investment in the rental market, to increase the choice for renters and, over time, reduce market rents. The Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026 is currently passing through the Houses of the Oireachtas. To support an increase in available rental accommodation, the Government has also brought forward key measures, including a revised national planning framework enabling the zoning of significantly more land, and the revision of design standards for apartments. These measures, along with a reduced VAT rate of 9% on apartments announced as part of budget 2026, are focused on unlocking the delivery of apartments that is key to increasing the supply of rental properties. The Government is also continuing the development of cost rental as a new tenure type, which means providing homes to tenants at least 25% below market rent by providing significant levels of funding support to the Land Development Agency, LDA, approved housing bodies, AHBs, and local authorities. While it has been asserted that landlords are leaving the rental market, the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, director's report shows that while 5,405 notices of termination were received by the RTB in quarter 3 of 2025, 18,425 new tenancy registrations were also confirmed for the same period. This figure serves to highlight the consistent churn within the rental market. The Deputy suggests using the tenant in situ scheme to address the scarcity of rental accommodation. The tenant in situ scheme, as has been referred to, is an acquisitions programme specifically in respect of those who are at risk of homelessness and already qualify for social housing support such as the housing assistance payment, HAP. The Deputy has outlined many of those situations. Some €375 million was provided last year for local authority acquisitions. It is an emergency measure and should only be used by local authorities as a last resort when all other options to prevent homelessness have been exhausted. Our focus must be on constructing new social homes but I note that significant funding will be provided through our acquisition programme of second-hand homes for those at risk of homelessness, again under the 2026 programme, as a response to short-term pressures, affording local authorities the flexibility needed to respond while they scale up their construction programmes. The Deputy also suggested the vacant property refurbishment grant could be used to address the scarcity of rental accommodation. This scheme provides a grant of up to €50,000 for the refurbishment of homes that have been vacant for at least two years and up to €70,000 where it is a derelict property. It is available in respect of homes for occupation as a principal private residence and properties that would be made available for rent. It, therefore, increases the supply of homes available to rent and it could address the issue of the plethora of vacant houses the Deputy referred to. In providing a grant to support the refurbishment of vacant and derelict properties, individual landlords, who without the support of the grant would not be able renovate and turn these disused properties into homes for rent, are being incentivised. It has become a vital affordable support, particularly in more rural areas where supply of new housing is not readily available. It is also supporting the regeneration of towns and villages and areas of our cities, as well as supporting environmental objectives. I look forward to hearing more of what the Deputy has to say about this issue. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-18/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:39+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-18