The Green Party claims the new rent certainty measures "don't go far enough" to overhaul the rental market in Ireland.

Leader Eamon Ryan said while limiting rent increases to 4% per annum is better he would have liked to see the limits linked to the Consumer Price Index.

Mr Ryan said: "Similarly, while we welcome the inclusion of Waterford, Limerick and Galway in the plans, we would have liked tenants in rural Ireland to have been afforded the same protections.

"This is very much an emergency measure - a sticking plaster in the short term. It does not deal with the fundamental problems with the rental market. The haphazard nature of this bill, brought last minute and agreed between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil behind the scenes, meant that it couldn’t be any other way.

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"While these rent certainty measures will be a welcome relief for the thousands of tenants facing rent hikes in the New Year, the rental crisis will need to be revisited, with more fundamental reforms of the market considered by the Dáil in a structured, comprehensive way."

Green Party Deputy Leader Catherine Martin TD said: "The reality is that home ownership is now out of reach for most people. Rather than responding to this problem by protecting tenant rights and planning for the future, the Government is tinkering with the market and offering incentives to landlords and developers. Rent uncertainty makes it impossible to settle down in communities, to contribute to those communities, to start a family or enrol a child in the local school. Rent uncertainty and unwillingness to regulate investors in this area has also directly contributed to a mass increase in family homelessness."

(CD/MH)