Labour is calling for a rent regulation to be introduced urgently to prevent the Government from intervening in the rental market.

Labour Senator Aideen Hayden said rules need to be introduced immediately to curb rising rents.

She said: "The Central Bank's announcement today shows that they have responded to concerns that First Time Buyers would be excluded from homeownership by reducing the equity cap to 90 per cent for the first €220,000 of the purchase price. Regulating rising rents is just another side of the same coin. We need to ensure that first time buyers are not frustrated in their efforts to save for their own home by excessive rents. We have a shortage of housing both for purchase and for rental which won’t be resolved any time soon, rents will continue to rise unless Government put limits on the extent or rent rises or renters may find themselves trapped for the foreseeable future in rental housing without being able to access homeownership.

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"One in five households in Ireland rely on the private rented sector to provide their family with a home, this is the highest number since the 1950s. Rents in Dublin have increased by 30% since 2012. Rising rents are a direct cause of the increasing numbers of families becoming homeless in the capital. There is no constitutional impediment to the introduction of rent certainty measures in Ireland provided they are proportionate, for example Planning Law allows for Part V which has not been found to be unconstitutional. The constitution recognises that property rights may be regulated in the interests of the common good. I am not suggesting that Landlords be unfairly treated but that rent increases should be linked to the Consumer Price Index."

(CD/MH)