Eoghan Murphy has ruled out rent freezes claiming they are “dangerous”.
Instead, the Housing Minster is happy to let private landlords and the market dictate prices.
This is despite the latest Daft.ie rent report this week showing rents have reached record highs all over the country again.
Opposition parties have called for an emergency intervention by the Government, saying it should be done through introducing an immediate freeze because the Rent pressure Zones aren’t working.
The RpZs were introduced by Mr Murphy in an effort to stop the spiralling of rents in recent years.
They only apply in certain urban areas and work by limiting rent increases by land- lords to just over 4% a year.
But rents are still rising by an average of over 6% in most areas as the RpZs are simply ignored and loopholes to get around them are continually exploited.
Mr Murphy admitted “rents are too high,that’s why we brought in rent controls,”
But he then went on to say he would not consider introducing the rent freezes everyone else is calling for in the Dail.
He added: “It’s unaffordable Mr Murphy and people are having to make unacceptable choices in order to pay their rent.”
He was then asked by RTE’s Miriam O’Callaghan.
The Fine Gael TD replied: “I think that’s a very dangerous suggestion. I know the idea of it sounds, ‘oh, rent freezes, they won’t go any people currently renting, that’s OK for them.
“But for new people looking to rent, moving out of college, starting their first job, maybe they’ve been in a relationship, maybe that relationship has ended, maybe they’re coming here for the first time, all the evidence points to the fact that supply for them would freeze.
“So we’d be freezing them out of the rental sector altogether.”
