Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation Dail Éireann — 2026-05-14 ============================================================ Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow As the Deputy knows, the setting of rents is a matter for each local authority, quite rightly. We either believe in local democracy or we do not. We fund it well enough. We have set it up well enough. We have councillors elected right across the country and there are chief executives. It is up to each local authority to decide their situation. There is also a need for fairness in relation to rent. We provide a lot of social housing in this country and there is a need to make sure people are paying a fair rent as well. That is an important part of the social contract. There are many people looking for a home and trying to buy a home. There are many people in private rental accommodation. There are many people who have scraped and saved to buy their own home too. There is a need for fairness and if there are some rents local authorities do not believe meet that fairness test, there is a case to make sure they are set at an appropriate rate. --- 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/2026-05-14/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:56+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-14