Landlords who breach new rules around rental deposits will be prosecuted, the Housing Minister has insisted.
Darragh O'Brien was speaking ahead of the new rules coming into force next week.
Under the new laws, a landlord will only be allowed to ask for a maximum of two months' rent as a deposit - which includes one month's advance rent payment.
On The Hard Shoulder, Minister O'Brien said the measure is needed due to a "dysfunctional market".
He said the amount of competition for rental accommodation means some potential tenants are asked for larger deposits.
He explained: “It will be illegal from next week to ask for more than the equivalent of two months’ rent by way of a deposit - and one of those months is an advance payment. So effectively it’s one month's rent and one month's deposit.
“We will prosecute people who breach that - it’s as simple as that."
Another housing measure passed by the Oireachtas this weeks means rent increases will be linked to inflation.
Minister O’Brien said that measure is coming into force to ensure tenants did not face 8% rent increases this summer.
He said: “Rents are too high in Ireland right now, and the rent pressure zone legislation was due to run out at the end of this year.
"What I’ve done now with an amendment I brought forward last night… is to link rents with inflation.”
He noted that average inflation over the last three years is about 0.73%, and the new rules will mean a "really significant change" for around 75% of tenanncies.
He said a full rent reform bill will be brought forward in the autumn.
Cuckoo funds
The Government has faced significant criticism from the opposition this week for passing a law exempting some cuckoo funds from new stamp duty rules.
The 10% tax on purchases of 10 or more homes was a major part of the Government’s attempt to prevent investment funds from buying up housing estates ahead of first-time buyers.
However, an amendment passed by the Government this week will exempt funds from the tax if they are leasing the homes back to the State for social housing.
Sinn Féin's housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin accused the Government of 'turning their back on people' with the move.
There it is for all to see.
FF/FG/Greens vote for a TAX BREAK for Cuckoo Funds to reward them for snatching up family homes.
This government has turned their back on people, again. pic.twitter.com/1GuQifwGeq— Eoin Ó Broin (@EOBroin) July 7, 2021
Minister O'Brien accused the opposition of speaking "out of both sides of their mouth" when it comes to this issue.
He argued: “I don’t want to go over the top, but it was pretty outrageous actually... because what some in the opposition were saying was basically cancel and rip up those agreements.
"I don’t want to put 2,500 families homes’ at risk. I wasn’t going to take a risk with them.
“Two of the parties who were really really critical about this, one being Sinn Féin… Deputy Ó Broin asked me by way of parliamentary question about exempting these very funds… that 200 homes would get an exemption. Ged Nash of Labour asked the same… because they recognised there are real families."
