Legislation that will introduce significant changes to the rental market has been passed in the Dáil on Wednesday night.
The Residential Tenancies Bill 2026 was passed by 80 votes to 70. Government-supporting Independent TD Danny-Healy Rae voted against the Coalition.
Gillian Toole, an Independent TD also supporting the Government, abstained during the vote at second stage, but was not present in the chamber for the final vote or subsequent roll call vote that was called for by Sinn Féin.
The legislation means landlords whose properties become vacant will be able to reset rents to market rates from March 1st. There will be no changes for existing leases. New tenancies after March 1st will be subject to a minimum duration of six years in an effort to give greater security of tenure to tenants.
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The Bill is to go to the Seanad on Thursday, following more than five hours of debate this evening.
Sinn Féin’s housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin said about 60,000 potential first-time tenants would be affected by the reset based on current data.
Ó Broin said new renters in new tenancies would be facing potential rent increases of 20 per cent to 30 per cent.
“The summary consequence of this proposal … is that somewhere in the region of 60,000 households, singles, couples, families, over the next 12 months will be asked by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Lowry and Healy-Rae Independents to pay rent increases in the order of €3,000, €4,000 to €5,000,” he said. “When you strip it all away, that is what is in front of us.”
Social Democrats housing spokesman Rory Hearne said the legislation was based on a “flawed market theory of housing” and there was “no social conscience” in the decision being made by Government
“It is a cruel, crude, cold decision being made that the minister knows and has agreed will lead to higher rents,” he said.
Labour’s housing spokesman Conor Sheehan said the changes would lead to “a real return to economic evictions”.
“People will be evicted because they cannot pay the rent,” he said. “The truth behind this legislation is that it is for large institutional investors and big property developers. It is not for smaller SME builders. It is certainly not for renters.”
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said the Government’s argument was similar to that made by the US military during the Vietnam War “when they said ‘We needed to bomb villages in order to save them’”.
“What the Government is saying is that in order to reduce rents, we have to increase rents. It is perverse Orwellian logic,” he said. “We have to allow rents to be reset to even more unaffordable levels because somehow, by magic, that will make them go down at some point in the future. There is no evidence ever anywhere of that happening. This is market dogma of the absolutely worst kind.”
Defending the proposals earlier, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the Government was “biting the bullet and taking action”.
He said the Housing Commission had recommended reform of rent pressure zones along with the Housing Agency.
The Fianna Fáil leader said the reforms would give “stability, clarity and certainty” to renters and landlords into the future and move into “the ending of no-fault evictions”.
Martin said there needed to be more supply in the rental market but if there wasn’t then “prices will continue to rise”.
“The only effective way to moderate pricing in the rental market is to increase supply,” he said.
Minister for Housing James Browne said the new measures would strengthen tenant’s rights while driving investment, which was “needed” to increase housing supply.
