Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will speak on amendments Nos. 36 and 44 together, then Nos. 45 and 46 together and then on amendment No. 28 separately.

Amendments Nos. 36 and 44 deal with an anomaly in the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 which allows for what is called the no reason eviction at the end of a four or six-year Part 4 tenancy. Currently, all Part 4 tenancies in Ireland, which are most private tenancies, must be renewed after six years or four years if one is in the property before 2016. Part 4 tenancies generally automatically continue and are considered rolling tenancies in terms of the amount of notice the landlord must give the tenant to vacate the property. However, when a Part 4 period comes to an end there is a window for the landlord to evict a tenant for no reason under section 34(b), a power which amendment No. 44 deletes. Rebuilding Ireland contains a commitment to move towards indefinite tenancies and our amendment simply places that in legislation. The time for doing so is long past.

Amendments Nos. 45 and 46 refer to eviction due to sale of buy-to-let or investment properties. It is simply unnecessary to allow eviction on the grounds of sale. It should not be happening. In European countries with established private rental sectors with strong security of tenure sale is not permitted as a ground to evict. The same is even true in the UK, which has a similar private rented sector legislative structure to ours. However, I am willing to withdraw those amendments and to table something similar on Report Stage.

Amendment No. 28 is not in this group.