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There was “always an expectation that rents may go up a certain amount”, the Housing Minister said, as he defended his tenancy reforms.

James Browne has also blamed poor housing delivery in Limerick for a major rise in average rent in the city.

The latest data showed the annual rate of rental inflation for new tenancies increased to 9.1% in the first quarter of the year.

All cities saw substantial growth in new tenancy rents, with the largest annual change in standardised average rent for new tenancies seen in Limerick City, which increased by 20.9%.

At the Fianna Fáil think-in on Monday, Limerick Senator Dee Ryan told reporters there had been a “a real challenge around rent increases” in the city in recent years.

She said there had been “huge work into supporting developers to bring forward housing” but added there was a real challenge on availability due to an increase in jobs in Limerick.

Mr Browne said “rents are way too high right across the country” and said the only way to address the problem was through supply.

Asked if he his Department had projected new rents increasing by up to 21% in a city year-on-year, Mr Browne said he was “not happy to see that kind of level of rent increase”, adding that it “really hurts people”.

He told reporters: “We’ve also seen an increase in the number of landlords and in the number of tenancies, and we’re seeing an increase in investment as well.

“If we didn’t make changes, we weren’t going to see any of those, and we would have been effectively freezing the rental crisis.”

He added: “I think there was always looking at the the housing commission and their work as well there was always an expectation that, you know, rents may go up a certain amount.

“You’re going to have pockets of different variations in terms of what those rents may go up or may go down.

“But the key is driving that supply level.

“I do want to see Limerick building more houses and more apartments.”

Asked if he was surprised by the Limerick data, the minister replied: “You know, their record is not great to be honest in terms of the delivery, and what I’m not surprised at is that one of the biggest jumps in rent, is also among the local authorities that’s one of the worst in terms of delivering their housing targets.”