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RENT PRESSURE ZONE rules have been extended for a further year until 31 December 2025.
Government decided to extend the operation of rent pressure zones at Cabinet today.
A Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) is a designated area where rent increases are capped.
Rents in a RPZ cannot be increased by more than 2% per annum and the rules apply to both new and existing tenancies in RPZs .
Today’s decision comes shortly after the latest Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) report found that the national average rents for new tenancies are €1,598 per month, up 11% on the previous year, while existing tenancies rose 5.2% to a national average of €1,357.
There was a higher percentage increase in new tenancies outside Dublin, where monthly rent costs rose nearly 13% compared with 10% in the capital.
Earlier today, opposition members rounded on the Taoiseach on the issue of housing, with Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald highlighting the issue of the government involvement in long-term leasing deals.
Calling it a “fiasco”, she said the policy of providing social housing by leasing properties from the private sector was “wasteful and costly”.
Over the weekend, The Business Post reported that the State has taken out almost 9,000 such long-term leasing deals at a cost of more than €3.24 billion over the 25 years the deals are due to run.
McDonald says billions is being sent on these deals and at the end of it, the state won't own these properties.
— Christina Finn (@christinafinn8) May 14, 2024
Taoiseach responds by saying today it was decided to extend rent pressure zones for another year.
He says long-term leasing is being tappered down and phased out. pic.twitter.com/qAKTOu3JSt
The Taoiseach took issue with the figures, stating that it was being assumed that all leases entered into would run 25 years.
Simon Harris said the State’s long-term leasing to provide social housing would end by December 2025, as promised by Government in 2021.
McDonald said long term social housing leases are subject to “upward-only” rent reviews every three years and are not limited by the 2% cap under Rent Pressure Zones.
“A very, very sweet deal for the property funds,” McDonald told the Dáil.
“This is a scandalous, short-sighted, negligent waste of taxpayers’ money by Government. Instead of investing to boost State-owned social housing stock, you’re paying out huge sums of taxpayers’ money to ‘big shot’ property funds for homes the state won’t own – the incompetence here is off the charts.
“Far from phasing out this wasteful policy, you’ve turbocharged it with bumper profits for property funds. And this puts up in lights that Fine Gael is never ever going to solve the whole housing crisis The simple truth is you’re not capable of it.”
In response, Harris said the measure was being tapered down and phased out by the government, but added that when it comes to housing the government has a “pragmatic view”, stating that is a good thing to do in an emergency.
“All these deals come with upward only rent reviews,’ she says, stating every single aspect of the deal is bad for the state,” said Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns today.
“Quite literally, if you wanted to design a worse way to provide social housing you couldn’t,” she added, stating that “investment funds are loving it”.
“The sweetheart deals are cash cows for them. There’s literally no downside. They lock in sky high rents, include upward only rent reviews, and ensure they retain ownership of the asset at the end.”
Harris again defended the Government’s record on housing, stating: “Never in your lifetime or my lifetime were more social homes provided than were provided last year.
“Because housing policy can’t just be about ideology and emergency, it has to be about using every single provision.
“When it comes to housing, we take a pragmatic view, unlike some of you who rule this out and rule that out, we will use every tool at our disposal to maximize the availability of housing supply for our citizens.”
With reporting by Press Association
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Fathered a child = heinous crime. Fiddled a child = let’s say no more about it. Catholic Church 2017
Don’t think Irish Catholics were “profoundly upset” by Bishop Casey being a dad at all…..
@John003: it was more the embezzling of the money that irritated me.
@john Appleseed: well said
@john Appleseed: I think it was the beginning of the end for the Catholic Church as we knew it in Ireland. If a bishop like Casey could do that then we were able to believe all the other revelations that followed. The Catholic Church might see what he did as harmful but I think he unwittingly did a lot of good.
@john Appleseed:
Nail on the Head John…absolutely disgusting
I think that’s what irritated them the most too
It beggars belief doesn’t it? “Bishop has a child with a consenting adult and steals money” is profoundly disturbing to the the head honchos of Catholic Ireland, but sexually and physically abusing children and leaving them with indelible psychological scarring gets brushed under the carpet. I believe in God but the Catholic Church has proven itself to be a dark, twisted and corrupt organisation with no regard for anyone outside its chosen members. Just like our government. The Lord between us and all harm.
One priest/bishop father’s a child and gets posted to a hell hole in the third world. Another priest molests numerous children and gets moved to another comfortable parish. Priorities are clear.
@Paul Mac Court: Don’t you mean that they are spirited away to another comfortable parish. Ir is all divine intervention or smoke and mirrors with them bouyo’s
@Paul Mac Court: Eamonn Casey wasn’t ‘posted to a hell hole in the third world.’ He chose to go and serve as a missionary priest in a remote area of Peru. He could have chosen to work in the USA or some other economically developed country, and in fact served in an English parish after finishing his stint in Peru.
Keeping his head down more like in a far away place
Once again putting the institution (church) before the welfare of his son and his mother. Somethings never change even after all the revelations.
@Jimmy McCarthy: they attempt to balance every wrong done by clerics with a eulogy on all the good deeds done.
But if you dont follow their rules there’s no balance sheet.
You’re bound for hell.
@Jimmy McCarthy: Thousands of Irishmen are guilty of same crime as Bishop Casey. They put their own welfare and position above that of their children by not living up to their responsibilities. They stood idly by and let women
and children suffer in bell holes like Magdalene Laundries and so called Mother and Baby Homes.
@Philip Howlin: Yep all those immaculate conceptions. Where were the fathers. Some of them moved to another parish. No love for fallen women.
On this day 2013 http://www.dailyedge.ie/good-news-you-can-now-change-your-mind-about-thejournal-ie-comments-911407-May2013/
Yesterday http://www.dailyedge.ie/journal-comments-section-changes-3-3288669-Mar2017/
RIP comments section
Any sign of Annie and/or Len’s son?
@Markonline: crying emoji face
Had to get the dig in… Of course when O’Connell kicked it they basically rewrote history for his eulogy…
The church needs to learn that moder society doesn’t give a toss about the “sins”. It’s their crimes that we have a problem with.
Why do RTE keep calling him ‘Bishop’ when he hasn’t been Bishop for 25 years??
@EvieXVI: once a bishop, always a bishop unless defrocked.
@Kieran O’dwyer: he was kind of defrosted though…
@EvieXVI: *defrocked* even!
@EvieXVI: once a bishop always…..,
No, defrosted is what he was. Got warm and loved a woman.
Cases actions – or lack of them in some cases, were pretty upsetting for his son while growing up. The church in their PR spinning, is always all too willing to gloss over that fact conveniently.
He’s human.
@Michael McGuinness: So was Stalin, Hitler and Churchill?
Bishop Casey was not a bad man but a good one there are priests and nuns out there who raped young boys and girls who were in their care shame on them some of those victims never got justice()
Michael Cleary was worse. He denied ,on his death bed, that he fathered a child.
@Each Way Thief: Father Jack has video evidence.
Where does the torture and rape if small children fit in with those who “preach the gospel?” You just have to hand it the Catholic Church, the bs is never ending.
@Laura Mulcahy: Is that the one with the big white dog that is always flying lol.
Removed from office for having a normal human relationship. That’s what the RC church is most afraid of. Women. Girls, you’re the biggest threat there is to the dead stale corpses who call themselves priests and christians
Suffering?? Caused by the Birth of his Son!! Has nothing Changed? What an Awful thing to say at His Funeral! Appalling! RIP Eamon! God Bless His Son!
have your say