LAST UPDATE | 10 Jun

Opposition politicians criticised the government's plans to impose nationwide rent controls today. Oireachtas Oireachtas

OPPOSITION POLITICIANS CRITICISED the government’s plans to impose nationwide rent controls today.

The coalition’s announcement was dubbed a “recipe for rocketing rents” and labelled a “sweetheart deal” for investment firms during Leaders’ Questions this afternoon.

Cabinet this morning green lit plans to impose a nationwide rent pressure zone on existing tenants, meaning landlords can only increase rents by up to 2% annually, and to allow property owners to reset costs to market values between tenancies.

New indefinite tenancies, signed on or after 1 March 2026, will have a six-year no-fault eviction ban imposed. Landlords will be allowed to reset rents to market values every six years as well.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the rent cap was an attempt by government to “hide your blushes”. She said that allowing landlords to reset rents to full market rates every six years was the “death knell” of rent pressure zones. 

Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan said that according to the line in the press release, renters will face “astronomical rent increases they cannot afford every six years”.

“You’re throwing renters under the bus,” he told the Taoiseach. “Incredibly, you’re planning even more favourable treatment for vulture funds than already exists.”

Speaking to reporters earlier, housing minister James Browne said that the vast amount of rents will be reset in 2032, with the hope that – by then – supply will have caught up with the market and that rents will be cheaper as a result.

Junior housing minister John Cummins, speaking on RTÉ Television’s Prime Time programme this evening, pushed back on claims that the provisions announced today will not impact supply.

He said that he believes the government has struck the right balance to attract landlords to the market, retain current property owners who have homes to lease and protect renters’ rights while doing so.

Cummins repeated the claims by Browne that it is the hope of government that the supply of homes in the Irish rental market will have increased by the time the first six-year period has ended.

Labour leader Ivana Bacik said the Government had performed a “screeching U-turn” on RPZs. She said the RPZs scheme had been called into question before, and was now being extended nationwide.

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said that rents being “reset” to the market rate when a tenant leaves a tenancy was “a recipe for rocketing rents”.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he was accused of getting rid of RPZs months ago, when “it was never, ever contemplated to end RPZs”. He said the announcement was “the strongest set of rent protection measures we’ve ever had in the history of the state”.

McDonald also questioned how students would be impacted by the decision, given the shortage in affordable, purpose-built accommodation seen at the beginning of every term for the last few years. 

Junior minister for housing John Cummins has subsequently told RTÉ Radio One’s Drivetime programme that provisions will be made in law so that students are not met large increases in accommodation costs in September 2026. 

Includes reporting by Press Association