Prospect of Aer Lingus sale: Have the courage to face reality

AS ever more people, individuals and families, come to depend on the rental market for their housing needs it is appropriate that some measures are being prepared to offer some sort of stability and security to tenants.

Announcing that he was preparing interim measures to protect tenants while the construction industry tries to catch up with demand, Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly said his proposals would bring “rent certainty” until housing supply catches up with demand after a “lag period” of three years. During that period rent increases would be linked to the Consumer Price Index and landlords would have to justify a rent increase by refurbishing the property.

Outlining his proposals, Mr Kelly said it had not been decided if his proposals, if enacted, would be mandatory or voluntary. This seems inordinately optimistic because, as history has shown time after time, legislation designed to protect the vulnerable needs to be obligatory — anything else is just so much hot air.