Sinn Féin calling for a three-year rent freeze to stop rising costs for tenants

Mr Ó Broin said he "simply doesn't accept" the argument that a ban on increasing rents would drive many landlords out of the market.

However, he acknowledged that 20,000 rental tenancies have exited the market as their properties have been sold to first and second-time buyers.

But Mr Ó Broin said: "The primary reason why those people have sold off is because the properties have returned to positive net equity and they want to get out.

"They are people who probably should never have been landlords, they thought it was a passive investment that didn't require much time.

"And of course they suddenly realised that being a landlord is essentially a full-time job, it requires a lot of effort and that's a real problem."

Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Mr Ó Broin called on Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien to sit down with the sector and with the opposition to come up with a plan to stop what he called the "disorderly exit" of landlords.

"The idea that a ban on increasing rent when rents are today higher than they have ever been will result in a loss of supply I simply don't accept."

He said so-called "interferences in the markets" mean landlords now again get 100% mortgage interest relief which was increased from 75% over the last number of years and they are also able to write off very significant portions of their costs.

Margaret McCormack, spokesperson for the Irish Property Owners Association, said it is an "economic fact" that any medium-term rent freeze would impact supply.

"High rents grab attention and headlines, but they are not representative of the market as a whole," she said.