Gavan Reilly: Rent move makes a mockery of ministers’ own previous excuses

The awkward bit about becoming a bit of an old fogey around Leinster House is that you start to remember the old controversies too well. There’s one I remember more distinctly than I should, given that it reached its climax on the same night as the 2016 Today FM Christmas Party.

That was when the legislation behind Rent Pressure Zones was still going through Leinster House – an odd system borne, we were told, out of both practical and legal necessity.

Practical necessity was clear. Rents were beginning to spiral at an outrageous rate, and many urban properties would simply become unaffordable unless some kind of cap was put in place.

The legal argument was perhaps more important: we were told that in order for rent caps to kick in, there would have to be especially grave local circumstances. The rent in an area would have to be above what was previously considered ‘standard’, and the annual rate of increase must be consistently above 7%. Only then could the caps kick in – caps which were, at the time, sent at 4% a year.

Unless these specific local thresholds were met, Simon Coveney explained, the idea of a single, default, blanket nationwide rent cap would be unconstitutional. The Constitution was drafted with the Land League in mind, and had prescribed certain property rights in mind. Those rights were sacrosanct unless compromising them was necessary for the public good, we were told.

At least, that’s what we were told.

I remember what we were told during the Covid winters as well. Remember the brief periods where evictions and rent increases were all but banned? That was a necessity of the stay-at-home orders: the government couldn’t expect you to stay at home, if it was still allowing you to be evicted or priced out of that home.

You might remember the weird period then where lockdowns were still in place, but the evictions ban was lifted. This was because the government had been told it couldn’t ban evictions on economic grounds, only on health ones. A ban on no-fault evictions, predicated solely on the cost of property was not a runner.

At least, that’s what we were told.

On Monday night a team of high-level ministers decided that the situation was now so grave, the RPZ system of default and blanket rent caps could not become nationwide. In addition, they decided that if the property owner was a ‘large’ landlord – i.e. If they owned more than three properties – the same property rights could be diluted.

In the present circumstances, the proposals are fair. The mortgage on our 3-bed semi-detached house, close to the M50, is barely over half of the comparable market rent. The system is banjaxed.

But don’t overlook the fact that Simon Harris and Paschal Donohoe were members of governments that previously – faithfully – told us the Constitution did not permit the same protections that are now on the cusp of being universal.

Or, at least, that’s what they were told.

Gavan Reilly is Political Correspondent with Virgin Media News and Political Columnist with the Meath Chronicle. Column appears first in Tuesday's paper!