Rental Sector
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-03
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John Cummins (FG), Waterford

If the Deputy will allow me to respond, he gave an example of a tenant with two or three years of a contract. That does not exist. Part 4 tenancies are created after six months, and tenants have protections under the residential tenancies legislation. The new legislation that was passed applies to new tenancies created after 1 March.
On the Deputy’s broader point in respect of the rent scheme, which I commented on in my initial contribution, it is a matter for each of our 31 local authorities to set their differential rent schemes. Many people in the Dáil look for devolved functions and more powers for local councils. The Deputy sat on a council. I remember meeting him at various engagements. As Minister of State with responsibility for local government, I am looking forward to receiving the recommendations of the local authority task force, which has the aim of trying to give more powers to local government. This is one of them. This is a reserve function. It is an executive decision to bring forward measures to ensure that stock can be maintained. They have set it at 18% as opposed to 15%, but it is also grounded on the fact that those on the lowest incomes pay the least amount in rent and those on the highest incomes will pay the highest amount. That is a fair and equitable system. It is the system of differential rents that we have in place to support the most vulnerable in this country.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-03/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:02+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-03