Cathal Mac Coille: Government must be radical on rents for its own sake, and ours

As increasing numbers of younger voters may never be able to buy their own home, it's time for the government to consider a drastic overhaul of the rental market

Darragh O'Brien, the Minister for Housing, has promised rent reform legislation in the autumn to cover rent pressure zones, longer-term rents and rent increases. Picture: Fergal Phillips

Reports in this newspaper on the buying of homes by investment funds dominated Dáil exchanges between government and opposition leaders again last week.

By Thursday, the government was signalling early decisions on measures to limit the ability of institutional investors to buy homes in bulk, as happened when one firm bought most of the houses in a new estate in Maynooth.

Darragh O’Brien, the Housing Minister, said that tax and planning measures to restrict the ...