{"id":494746,"date":"2026-05-20T21:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T21:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/494746\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T21:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T21:10:11","slug":"taoiseach-called-slibhin-for-defence-of-changes-to-rental-system-amid-record-rent-hikes-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/494746\/","title":{"rendered":"Taoiseach called \u2018sl\u00edbh\u00edn\u2019 for defence of changes to rental system amid record rent hikes \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government has defended regulation changes that allowed landlords to set new tenancies at market rates in the face of Opposition criticism that the move led to record rent hikes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A report published by property website Daft.ie this week showed rents increased by 4.4 per cent between December and March, the highest three-month increase on record<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Figures were particularly high in Galway<\/a>, where asking prices for rented properties rose 18 per cent year-on-year.<\/p>\n

However, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> questioned the use of the Daft report as the basis for assessing the rental sector as a whole, arguing in the D\u00e1il<\/a> that it was not based on a comprehensive data set covering the entire market.<\/p>\n

During heated exchanges on Wednesday, Martin was called a \u201csl\u00edbh\u00edn\u201d by Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> as he defended the Government\u2019s changes to rent controls amid much disruption and heckling.<\/p>\n

He said that the number of tenancies had actually increased to more than 240,000, a record level, because of the Coalition\u2019s housing policies. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Rents in Ireland surged by highest level on record after new control system startedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in leader Mary Lou McDonald<\/a> described the rental rule changes as a \u201cdisaster\u201d and said evictions were at their highest level since the famine era of the 19th century.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a very particular type of sl\u00edbh\u00edn to stand in this House and suggest that it is okay for families to face a rent bill of \u20ac30,000 a year in Dublin and \u20ac27,000 a year in Galway,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Daft.ie report noted year-on-year rent increases of 18 per cent in Galway, followed by Cork (13 per cent), Limerick (10 per cent), Waterford (8 per cent) and Dublin (6.9 per cent).<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach told the D\u00e1il that \u201cyou have to treat the Daft data with care in terms of any proper comprehensive analysis of the rental market\u201d, pointing instead to Central Statistics Office<\/a> figures showing a 0.3 per cent monthly change in rents during the first quarter.<\/p>\n

The overhaul, which came into effect in March, allows landlords to reset rents to market rates between tenancies. Tenants were also granted greater security of tenure through new six-year \u201cminimum duration\u201d tenancies.<\/p>\n

The changes were on Wednesday defended by Minister for Housing James Browne, who said the Government had to \u201cdo something very important here to drive supply, because we had seen supply dry up\u201d. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Record number of eviction notices issued ahead of changes to rental rulesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He said the recent months had also seen an increase in the number of landlords and tenancies. <\/p>\n

Browne acknowledged rents had been \u201cgoing up continuously as it was\u201d, but said many people were still living with their families due to the shortage of rental accommodation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to drive that supply, and we made those changes not only to get more supply going, but also to strengthen tenants\u2019 rights,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He argued that without the reforms \u201cthis was just slowly going to get worse and worse\u201d, adding that the measures were intended to encourage the construction of apartments and houses across the country.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in housing spokesman Eoin \u00d3 Broin said the surge in rents was a direct consequence of the Government\u2019s decision to allow landlords to reset rents between tenancies. <\/p>\n

Labour housing spokesman Conor Sheehan called on the Government to remove the market rent reset mechanism from the legislation and to support Labour proposals to ban no-fault evictions.<\/p>\n

Rory Hearne of the Social Democrats said the hikes would lead to a \u201ctsunami of evictions\u201d. <\/p>\n

Aont\u00fa leader Peadar T\u00f3ib\u00edn argued the Government could have improved housing viability without increasing pressure on renters by cutting VAT and utility connection fees on new-build homes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government has defended regulation changes that allowed landlords to set new tenancies at market rates in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[49,9,10,1412,6217,18,30062,13,14,1878,6,47074,111023,19,17,4770,11,12,15,16,16594,5765,5,4097,41275,69712,47,18578,7,8],"class_list":["post-494746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-aontu","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-central-statistics-office","tag-daft-ie","tag-eire","tag-eoin-o-broin","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-galway","tag-headlines","tag-holly-cairns","tag-housing-commission","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-james-browne","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-mary-lou-mcdonald","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-renting","tag-residential-tenancies-board-prtb","tag-rory-hearne","tag-sinn-fein","tag-social-democrats","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}