Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

Fianna Fáil and the Green Party are aware that we are offering a genuine solution but they will not even entertain our attempt to build a positive outcome. I remind Deputy White that the Bill seeks to address the emergency that has arisen in regard to upward-only rent reviews and the substantial economic havoc that such provisions are wreaking on small and medium-sized enterprises. Rent reviews, which normally occur every five years, are resulting in the wind up of a large number of companies. In many cases, liquidators are having to exercise special statutory powers to disclaim onerous leases and the effective abandonment of businesses results in substantial employment losses. This Bill attempts to find a solution to this serious issue. We are not giving anybody false hopes when we seek to find a way to help these businesses survive and flourish.

I do not know if Deputy White received as many e-mails on this issue as I did. I wish to share with her one such e-mail I received from a lady in Mallow who operates a small niche business called Fountain of Angels. Her rent is €8,500 per annum. She told me in her e-mail that the upward-only rent review clause is unfair and discriminates against tenants. It is putting her under significant pressure and calls into question the viability of her business. If she tries to leave, however, the landlord is entitled to pursue her for loss of income for the remainder of her lease, which happens to have a term of 11 years. This situation is not helped by auctioneers who give misleading information and it reflects every e-mail we have received on this issue. This is a real issue and it must be dealt with in a real political sense and that is what we seek to do tonight.

Other matters that must be tackled include the hold on legal opinion and the hold that auctioneers, landlords and property owners have over people. We should think more laterally about how to allow businesses to survive, a purpose at the heart of the Bill. The proposals are perfectly realistic for people who live in the real world. We do not contend that we are giving people false hope. We are serious enough to put forward a Bill of this nature because we wish to tackle this issue realistically such that we can give small businesses an opportunity to flourish. That is the motive from which this Bill emanates.

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