Joan Burton ‘very confident’ over deal on regulating rent

Tánaiste Joan Burton has insisted she is confident a deal on regulating rent will be struck between Minister for Finance Michael Noonan and Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly.

Asked if Mr Noonan had an ideological difficulty with the concept of rent certainty, she said people in both Labour and Fine Gael had strong ideological views about all sorts of issues.

"The job of being in a coalition government, and my responsibility as Tánaiste and the Taoiseach's responsibility as Taoiseach, is to actually get agreement between the parties," Ms Burton said.

“We’ve had some very good detailed discussions on this, and I’m very confident we will reach agreement.”

Ms Burton said the package would address the problem of housing supply and help people in the rented sector.

“I’m absolutely confident we will have a strong programme which will concentrate on getting the houses built and, secondly, then better conditions and clearer arrangements and regulation of renting, for both the tenant and indeed for the landlord.”

She said discussions on a package to address the critical issues in the housing market had been going on for several months.

“The critical issue, above all else, is actually supply. So the core part of any agreement is to get local authorities and local authority members to strongly support the actual building and development and acquisition, by whatever means, of social housing.”

The Tánaiste said the Government also had to focus on affordable housing, saying some young couples in employment were paying more in rent than they would on a mortgage.

Ms Burton was speaking ahead of a Women in Sport conference in Dublin Castle on Wednesday morning.