Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I shall speak to both amendments and to the wider points as well but I do not want to repeat myself. In terms of the debate we have been having about vacant possession or tenants in situand removing this part of the Bill, the advice I have received is that it is not constitutional. Further advice I received was that, even if it were constitutional, it would not be retrospective so it would not protect people in existing tenancies. That is the legal picture.

There are also significant risks from a policy point of view. For example, we understand there would be a devaluing of the sale price of the property by between 20% and 30%. If we were working in a pure market where one landlord is selling to the other because one is selling its rent roll to the other, that would all make sense but that is not happening in our market at the moment. Given the recent history of the housing market, it could lower the sale price of that property by 20% or 30%, not the profit on the sale but the actual sale price of the property which, if someone is coming out of negative equity or trying to settle a debt with a lender, is in financial dire straits or needs the money for something very serious, would be an unfair attack on them. Furthermore, also as a policy consideration, if we decided we did not care about that and were going to proceed no matter what harm it might to the do the individual selling the property, a new couple buying the home would have to serve a notice to quit. What if the people do not leave in those circumstances? This young couple is paying a mortgage that is no doubt very expensive and is also paying rent, not living in the property, and going through the stress of having to deal with what would then be an eviction, not a notice to quit. Given those policy considerations, it is not a good idea. I do believe, however, that many of the changes we are making to section 34 as a whole, which we did work on - the Taoiseach and I engaged on several occasions with the leading NGOs - will strengthen protection for tenants and make an impact. Of course once they have had time to settle, we will look at them again to see the impact they have made.