Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 September 2019
559. Deputy Fiona O'Loughlin asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government if Monasterevin, County Kildare, will be included as a rent pressure zone; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38852/19]
View answerThe Kildare- Newbridge Local Electoral Area (LEA) was designated a Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) on 27 January 2017 under section 24 of the Residential Tenancies Acts (2004-2019). Subsequently, the Local Electoral Area Boundary Committee No 1 Report in 2018 recommended that Monasterevin be moved from the Athy LEA (which is not a designated Rent Pressure Zone) to a newly created Kildare LEA. New LEAs and Municipal Districts for County Kildare, which gave effect to this recommendation, were signed into law on 19 December 2018 through the County of Kildare Local Electoral Areas and Municipal Districts Order 2018.
However, Section 24A(6) or the Residential Tenancies Acts provides that ‘Where a local electoral area is prescribed by order as an RPZ and, subsequently, any local electoral areas are duly amended in a manner that affects the area of the local electoral area so prescribed, then the order shall continue to have effect as if the local electoral area concerned had not been so amended.’
Therefore, under Section 24A(6), areas already designated as RPZs will remain designated and areas that are not designated will retain their current undesignated status and as such will not become a RPZ by virtue of the change to the boundary. Monasterevin, which was previously in an undesignated LEA, therefore remained undesignated.
Under the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2019 the expiry date of all deemed and designated RPZs is extended to 31 December 2021.
