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

I thank the Deputies. I will start with the last point. In our engagements with this committee, non-governmental organisations and others we try to see if a targeted intervention could make a difference. On refinement, the NGO amendment focused solely on institutional investors. That captures buy-to-let properties and, as we know, the buy-to-let market is not like a traditional institutional investor market in this country, for reasons I will not go into. Constitutionally, that was regarded as an unjust attack on a subset of people to address a wider societal problem, one with far greater complexity than might be captured in just one change or an imposition on just one subgroup.

On institutional investors and vacant possession, in cases where these investors have obtained vacant possession, we are trying to get those properties before they go to the market and bring them into the social housing stock. That is being led by the Housing Agency, working with various lenders. There is a rolling fund that allows for that approach.

Going back to Deputy Ó Broin's point, I note there are much longer-term leases in the commercial sector. Notices to quit cannot break a lease agreement. If a tenant enters into a five-year lease with a landlord, a notice to quit served because a family member wants to live in the property cannot break that lease. We do not have long leases in the residential sector because, in my view, there is no taxation structure that incentivises them. There is such a structure on the commercial side. I would like to have a taxation system that incentivises longer-term leases. That would provide greater security for tenants without risking a flight of providers of rental accommodation from the market. These are other matters that we are considering.

I do not wish to get into a Second Stage debate on these issues. However, there is a correlation between the number of people entering homelessness or emergency accommodation from the private rental sector and the reasons given. We are trying to establish the extent of that correlation because that also has an impact on legal advice and other matters. That work is continuing.