<The housing crisis in Ireland has overshadowed the local economy as the collapse of the real estate sector has dealt a painful blow to the construction industry, affecting the pace of housing construction to levels not seen since the early 1970s, and press sources indicate that Ireland intends to enact legislation linking housing rents to the rate of inflation in order to curb the increase in rents. Ireland's housing crisis has become a major political issue ahead of elections scheduled for the next six months. Data from the Private Housing Council last week showed that rents jumped seven percent from the start of the year through June, with rents in Dublin increasing nearly 10 percent in the same period and are now just 3.5 percent below peak levels in 2007 before the global financial crisis, the effects of which the country is still reeling from: high unemployment, higher taxes and lower wages.

The sources told the newspaper that the government plans to implement a four-year system of indexing rents to inflation and that the plan will be drawn up before the budget, which will be announced on October 13, and then quickly enact legislation to prevent landlords from moving to increase rents before the new law comes into effect.

The sources told the newspaper that the government intends to implement the inflation indexing system for a period of four years and that the plan will be drawn up before the budget is announced on October 13.