Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This Bill is very important. I do not wish to repeat what has been said, but to return to the rent pressure zones, I note that a period of three years is specified. I believe the term should be five years because at the moment many counties are in rent pressure zones when others are not and areas that are not included such as my area of Carlow and parts of the areas represented by Deputy Casey and others are far behind. It is important that we would consider specifying a five-year period in the Bill. I ask Deputy O'Sullivan to respond on that point.

Section 9 relates to the rent register which will identify landlords and tenants. That is crucial. All parties, including Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, have Bills and we must all work together. The Bill will be crucial for tenants and landlords. We have good landlords and we have good tenants and we must strike a balance. It is important to get the balance right. At the moment, everybody's Bills are so different. Why can we not sit around the table together and come up with a good composite Bill? This is about ensuring tenants with children are looked after, as well as landlords. I know of a landlord recently who bought a second house in the boom. He was probably an accidental landlord but he now has to sell his home to move into the other house. He has no choice. There are genuine landlords who have good reasons for having to move. If we do not get the balance right in the Bill then it will be unfit for purpose.

Whether we enact this Bill or another one, enforcement is important. We could have as many Bills as we want but the legislation will not work if there is no enforcement. Local authorities will have to play a significant part given their role in HAP and RAS. Local authorities will be key. Various agencies such as the RTB must work with local authorities to create a register, which we do not have currently. That should be the key aim. Overall, the Bill is welcome. We must all make sure we get the Bill, which must be enacted as soon as possible. It is a long time since 2004 when we had something to work on. I am in favour of getting this right. No matter what party we are in, we must work to make sure that we introduce a Bill that will suit tenants and that we also strike a balance for landlords.