The focus of talks on issues in the rental market between Minister for Finance Michael Noonan and Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly has switched to a range of measures rather than one overarching solution such as rent control.
The Ministers have been at loggerheads on the matter since Mr Kelly brought forward proposals for some form of rent control or certainty in September.
Government sources indicated on Wednesday night that they were increasingly confident an agreement could be reached by the weekend, or certainly in time to be presented at Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting.
A Labour Party spokesman this week confirmed that the creation of a link between rent increases and the Consumer Price Index was no longer being explored.
The latest talks have focused on a series of measures including increasing the powers of the Private Residential Tenancy Board, longer leases and longer notice periods for terminating tenancies or increasing rents.
Other incentives include offering generous mortgage interest relief to landlords who have accepted tenants on rent supplement after a period of three years.
No analysis
A source who support the status quo argued that if a measure linking rent increases to the index had been introduced in the budget, the Government would have been criticised for having no analysis to back it up.
“When the system has interfered with the property market in the past we have seen the effects,” said the source.
Mr Noonan and Mr Kelly met twice on Monday but since then talks have been held at official level, with papers being exchanged between the two departments.
The Taoiseach's special policy adviser Andrew McDowell and his counterpart on the Labour side, Edward Brophy, have also been involved in the process.
Mr Kelly on Wednesday accepted that the number of people becoming homeless because of rising rents was increasing. He and Mr Noonan were working on a package of measures to address this issue, which included strong solutions on the rent side, he added.
“The two main reasons are escalating rents and the second issue is the issue of supply. Long term the solution is supply. Short term we have to make sure that more people are not falling out of rental sector,” he said.
Homelessness campaigner Fr Peter McVerry criticised the “bickering” between Mr Noonan and Mr Kelly over some way of controlling or capping rent.
“While families are flooding into homelessness Government ministers are bickering, arguing and disagreeing with one another.
"Nero fiddles while Rome burns, that's the only image we have. It's an absolute disgrace. We have a crisis, it's beyond crisis, we have an emergency," he told RTÉ Radio's News at One.
