Latest news with #ÓBroin
RTÉ News
15 hours ago
- Business
- RTÉ News
Govt leaders agree to extend RPZs across country
Large landlords will be prohibited from implementing no-fault evictions, under a plan to be brought to Cabinet tomorrow by Minister for Housing James Browne. Landlords are to be categorised under a new system of national rent control, with large landlords defined as people who own four properties or more. Small landlords are those with three or fewer properties. Under the plan, which was approved by Coalition leaders tonight, Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) are to be extended across the country to cover every tenancy. The leader's meeting was told that this could mean that nearly a fifth of renters, who currently reside outside RPZs, come under rent control protection. As widely reported, RPZs are to be retained for existing tenancies, with rents linked to inflation or capped at 2% - whichever is lower. However, new builds will not have a cap anymore, and increases or decreases will be linked solely to inflation. It is understood that landlords will only be able to 'reset' a rent if their tenant voluntarily leaves. Where a notice to quit is served on a tenant, the landlord can't reset the rent, as the Coalition's aim is to remove an economic incentive for landlords to evict their tenants. In a bid to strike a balance and protect renters, the plan also includes security of tenure for tenants for at least six years. It is understood that the proposal to bring the entire country under the RPZ regime had been previously agreed upon but not made public. Tonight's meeting was attended by Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Simon Harris, Ministers for Housing James Browne, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe and Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Jack Chambers. Earlier, Sinn Féin said the Government's proposals to restructure RPZs will lead to significant increases for many renters and put many at risk of homelessness. Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Eoin Ó Broin accused the Taoiseach of gaslighting renters and deliberately misleading the public by claiming that the Government's proposals to restructure RPZs are balanced. and they would give greater protections to renters and provide certainty for investors. However, this is a contentious political decision. "When the Taoiseach said yesterday that this was a balanced package to protect renters and encourage investment, he is deliberately misleading the public," Mr Ó Broin said. "He is gaslighting renters, and I'm not even sure he fully understands the extent which they're putting huge numbers of people, young people, people approaching pension age, at enormous risk with even greater financial hardship, and in many cases, at risk of homeless," he said. Mr Ó Broin said there are thousands of tenants who signed tenancy agreements before 2022 and these people are only protected for six years before their landlord can evict them for any reason. The Government is proposing a perfectly legal mechanism to give those landlords leave to evict these tenants so they can avail of new rents, claimed Mr Ó Broin. Irish Property Owners Association gives cautious welcome to proposal Irish Property Owners Association (IPOA) chairperson Mary Conway gave a cautious welcome to the proposal. Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Ms Conway said there is very little detail about the plans so far, but landlords would welcome the change to reset rents after a tenant leaves. The inability to do so is one of the biggest disincentives to new investments coming into the market at private investor level, she explained. "That's one of the biggest disincentives to new investments coming into the market at the private investor level, because in the current regime, if a property is sold, a new investor isn't going to buy it because it's capped at the old rent," she said. "That's particularly significant down around the country, where landlords are leaving and there's no incentive for any other landlords to buy the property." There is a lot of focus on apartments in Dublin, Ms Conway said, adding the IPOA represents a lot of one-owner landlords around the country and if they exit the market then there is no incentive for anyone to come in. She said 2% was marginal, but the IPOA welcomed any increase at this stage and particularly the ability to reset rents when a tenant leaves. Mike Allen, the Director of Advocacy at Focus Ireland, said the RPZ proposals could place further financial burden and threaten homelessness on renters when rental subsidies are not increasing. "They seem to be creating a system which creates incentives for landlords to evict tenants so they can bring in something at higher market rates," he said. "And secondly, they're increasing rents right across the board. What are they doing for low income people on HAP to make sure subsidies there don't force people into deeper debt and eventually into homelessness?" Mr Allen was speaking at the launch of two Raise the Roof housing demonstrations set to take place in Dublin and Cork over the next two weeks. The protests are being organised under the umbrella of trade unions and non-governmental organisations, with the first planned for Tuesday 17 June outside Leinster House.
Irish Independent
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Independent
Overhaul of Rent Pressure Zone rules ‘will only lead to more homelessness and evictions,' say critics
The Government's latest move to ease the housing crisis looks set to face strong resistance, with opposition parties and some homelessness groups already voicing concerns. Ministers will meet tomorrow to consider a raft of changes to RPZs, but already they are facing a backlash. Under the proposals, landlords will be able to significantly hike rents beyond current caps to market rates in between tenancies of at least six years under new proposals intended to bring increased institutional investment in the private rental sector. It is expected that Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) limits on annual rent increases of 2pc or the rate of inflation will remain but will not apply to newly built apartments, while 'no fault' evictions may be restricted for the first six years of a tenancy. Landlords will be able to 'reset' rents after six years to market rates under plans that have been described as 'disastrous' and 'outrageous' by the opposition. However, Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said the Government had failed to spot a 'loophole' in the new measures that could put tens of thousands of existing renters at risk of eviction. A landlord can evict a tenant in a Part 4 tenancy, which lasts up to six years, only on the grounds of sale, use by the landlord or family member, substantial refurbishment or a breach of contract during that period. A landlord could have evicted a tenant for any reason at the end of these six years until former housing minister Darragh O'Brien changed the legislation in mid-2022. But that clause remains in place for tenancies that predate the change. Mr Ó Broin claims the new measures could become 'a completely legal incentive' for landlords to evict tenants in order to charge full market rent. 'If you allow landlords to reset rent and existing rental properties at the new market rent, the Government will be creating a huge incentive for landlords of pre-June 2022 tenancy agreements to utilise that provision at the end of the six years in order to get the tenant out and a new tenant in at full market value,' Mr Ó Broin said. 'Each year from now until 2028, a whole chunk of Part 4 tenancies from before 2022 will arrive at their six-year end point,' he added. 'What the Government is essentially doing without realising it, in my view, is basically giving a landlord whose tenancy agreement with their tenant comes to the end of the six years a completely legal method to evict that tenant for no reason whatsoever to avail then of full market rent for the new tenant. 'I think that's going to put tens of thousands of renters in that situation at very serious risk. Not all landlords will do it. But given that for many landlords, the gap between what they're charging and what they could get will be very great, that's a very, very significant incentive.' The TD said the proposals will also lead to 'huge increase for renters as they move from rental property to another'. 'This is far worse than I was expecting from government, and I think the big losers here are renters across a range of categories, who are going to face greater levels of rent at a time when rents are already too high, but also greater levels of eviction, particularly those in existing tenancies that were created before 2022.' While the plans may aim to bring new institutional investment into the private rental sector, Mr Ó Broin said it was more likely that the measures would be 'punishing renters for very little return in terms of additional stock and the additional stock they get will be exceptionally expensive'. Evicted tenants may also be at increased risk of homelessness as a result, with Mr Ó Broin describing the new plans as 'badly designed' and a 'disastrous move' for renters. Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne said lifting the rent cap between tenancies and on new-build rentals would be an 'outrageous' and 'cruel decision' that would be 'throwing young generations to the vulture-fund landlords – making them pay for government housing failures'. 'Lifting rent caps will lead to increased evictions and homelessness as landlords evict tenants to get a new tenancy and bring the rent up to market rents,' Mr Hearne added. Threshold CEO John Mark McCafferty has warned that any dilution of rental protections could 'push more renters into financial distress and, arguably, homelessness'. My concern is around the country, where there's nothing going to be built He told RTÉ's This Week that RPZs should be continued until a 'comprehensive stepdown plan is put in place'. Irish Property Owners Association (IPOA) chair Mary Conway said that while it was positive to see an incentive to build new rental apartments, small landlords outside Dublin, 'who have been on very low rents and barely surviving' would have hoped for measures that would allow them 'to bring the rent up a little bit over a period of time, or be able to reset the rent when tenants left'. 'We would hope that would happen, that they would still agree that if a long-term tenant left, or a property was going to be sent to market, that a new rent could be set,' she said. 'My concern is around the country, where there's nothing going to be built and you have small landlords in Leitrim, Sligo, Roscommon or wherever, if they leave the market now, there's no landlords down there now to replace them.' Ms Conway said the claims put forward by the Opposition that the proposed changes would increase homelessness is 'a knee-jerk reaction'. She expects legislation would be put in place that would protect renters and stop landlords evicting a tenant to bring in another at a higher market rent. In response to queries, a spokesperson from the Department of Housing said: 'The Housing Agency was commissioned to undertake a review of the current system of rent controls using Rent Pressure Zones. The department received this report on April 28, and [Housing] Minister [James] Browne will be bringing proposals to Government shortly.' Fionnán Sheahan: 'Trust us, we're the Government' stopped working after 2024's great housing bluff - Page 21
RTÉ News
03-06-2025
- Business
- RTÉ News
Shortage of planning staff causing housing delays
Sinn Féin's housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said a shortage of planning staff both in councils and in An Bord Pleanála is causing an excessive delay in building houses. Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said the Government has stated that the goal is to have 120 planners graduate each year, but it is not clear how this will be achieved in the Government's housing plan. He said that the Government has its "head in the sand" and is ignoring advice from the professionals. "Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael repeatedly have been told by the utilities, by professional planners, by people involved in public and private sector residential development what is required to get to the level of social affordable and private home ownership, new build homes that's required," he said. "We need a workplace plan from the Government and centralised planners are not necessary as decisions are best made locally", he added. He said that three years ago, the Government asked the City and County Managers' Association, the body that represents local authority managers, to do an assessment of how many additional planning staff they needed to meet the planning requirements at that time. Mr Ó Broin said the report, which was given to the department in 2022, said that local authorities needed an additional 541 planning staff. However, he said the parliamentary question that he got back from the minister last week stated that the Government provided sanction for 213 of those staff, but only 86 of those have been employed. "So less than half what was required has been sanctioned, and less than half of that again has been employed. And in my dealings with local authorities they're telling us all the time, both in their housing departments and in their planning departments, they have a problem with retention," Eoin Ó Broin said. "They don't have enough staff and there really doesn't seem to be any coherent plan from Government to address this," he said. "And the direct consequence is it is taking far, far too long, both for local authorities and An Bord Pleanála, who also have a staffing deficit, to make crucial decisions, decisions on underlying critical infrastructure, housing and renewable energy projects," he stressed. "We're not training up sufficient planners. We're also not able to keep all the planners that we're training and we're not making it as easy as we should do for people who might be, say, engineers in local authorities or related professions who want to scale up on the job and move across into planning," the Sinn Féin TD said. He also criticised the Government's "so-called resources plan" saying it does not say how many planners the country has, or how many it needs. "They say they want to get to 120 a year but they don't say how we're going to get to that number," he said. "I've met with the Irish Planning Institute, I meet with public and private sector professional planners and they've been shouting about this for a very, very long time," he stated. He said the Government can not plan for investment in water infrastructure or the electricity grid. "They haven't invested in a plan to ensure we have an adequate number of planners, both in the public and private sector side. And that's one of the single biggest reasons why planning decisions and planning decisions on housing are being delayed," he said. "We're about to have a revised national development plan and revised set of housing targets," he said. "If there isn't an adequate workforce plan to set out from 2025 to 2030, how many additional planners we're going to recruit each year, then the Government is not going to meet its housing targets, its critical infrastructure targets its renewable energy targets and of course that will make working people's lives ever more difficult," he concluded.
Irish Examiner
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
Politicians call on 'angry and frustrated' public to join protest at Government's 'failure on housing'
The public is being urged by opposition parties to take to the streets to protest the "do-nothing" Government's failure on housing. TDs from four Opposition parties called on those who feel frustrated and abandoned by the Government to join them in a protest outside the Dáil on June 17 as part of the Raise the Roof initiative. "We want the largest number of people who are angry and frustrated in the first instance with the Government's failures on housing but also any other issue that this Government is failing on and the list is very long," said Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin. With the housing crisis deepening, Mr Ó Broin said the public must come together to demand action from the Government "just as we have done in the past with the likes of Right2Water". The housing minister is set to discuss proposed changes to rent pressure zones with party leaders and Mr Ó Broin said any move that would increase the rent burden on tenants would be opposed "tooth and nail" by the opposition and the public. People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Paul Murphy said people were paying extraordinary amounts in rent, leaving them with nothing at the end of the month. The Government, which is "for landlords, by landlords", is seeking to double down on a strategy that has been failing people for over a decade, he said. "The strategy of the Government is to allow the crisis to get even worse, to allow rents to rise even further, even faster, all in the hope of 'oh this will attract in the private sector investment that will finally resolve this crisis'," said Mr Murphy. Those being hit by unaffordable rents and house prices as well as those who are living in emergency accommodation cannot afford to wait until the next general election for something to change, he said. "If we continue the way we are going, by the time of our next general election we will have well over 20,000 people in emergency accommodation in this country, rents will have risen by another 40% or so, and house prices will be so out of reach for ordinary people," said Mr Murphy. Sinn Féin, Labour, People Before Profit-Solidarity and the Social Democrats will put down a joint motion on the housing crisis on the day of the protest. Labour's Marie Sherlock said there was a collective responsibility on the part of the opposition to ensure housing remains firmly on the political agenda. She accused the Government of "constant deflection" from its own failures. It is time to get serious in terms of the "absolute dereliction" and the land banks that are lying undeveloped, she said. "We know that the vacant homes tax and derelict site levy are not worth the paper they are written on because the Government effectively set them up to fail, they expect to make so little money from them," said Ms Sherlock. When asked whether Ireland should consider imposing fines on developers if they are not building houses quickly enough, Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne said while developers need to be held accountable, ultimately it comes back to the State. "They seem completely obsessed with the private market, with institutional investor funds and unable to find a way out of this disaster," said Mr Hearne. Read More Mick Clifford: Government needs to come clean on housing numbers
Irish Independent
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Independent
Opposition vows to fight any Government plan to remove rent caps
On Monday, TDs from Sinn Féin, Labour, Social Democrats and People Before Profit launched a joint Raise the Roof housing initiative, which includes a protest outside Leinster House in June. The parties called for 'emergency action' to be taken to tackle the housing crisis, and criticised the Government's approach. The protest will come as TDs will bring forward a private member's motion on tackling the housing crisis in the coming weeks. Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said the Government is missing 'all of their targets'. 'We want to make a very, very strong call to say that this Government, this do-nothing Government, is letting people down, and the only way we're going to tackle this crisis is with emergency action,' Mr Ó Broin said. Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne described the housing issue in Ireland as a 'social catastrophe' and added that the Government action has not been much of the same, but worse. 'They have completely failed to treat this crisis like an emergency,' Mr Hearne said. Mr Hearne said it appeared the Government wanted to remove protections from renters in the middle of a housing emergency and said it was 'completely taking us off a cliff in terms of commencements, in terms of planning permissions'. In recent weeks, the Housing Agency delivered its report on rent pressure zones (RPZs) to housing minister James Browne, in which it recommended changes to the rent cap system. 'I think we need, in the opposition, to actively within the institutions, within the Dáil, within the committees, absolutely oppose any attempt to remove those rent caps, because it is just unthinkable that this Government would remove that protection that renters have in the middle of an emergency,' Mr Hearne said. ADVERTISEMENT Mr Ó Broin said Sinn Féin would fight changes to rent caps and put pressure on the Government both inside and outside the Oireachtas to force the it to 'stand by renters'. 'Any move by Government to allow landlords to increase the rent burden on tenants, a rent burden that is already far too high, will be strongly resisted, not just by our political parties here and the Raise the Roof movement, but I think by thousands and thousands of people,' Mr Ó Broin said. People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said a housing emergency needed to be declared. 'We need to act as if there's a housing emergency and that means pivoting away from reliance on the private sector, reliance on the market to deliver housing and instead for a much, much greater role of the state,' Mr Murphy said. 'So that's why we want people to come out at 6pm on Tuesday the June 17, outside the Dáil, and to send a very, very clear message to this government,' he added.
