Mr. John-Mark McCafferty:

Why are landlords resisting HAP? I do not have the full answer. A small number of them do not want their places inspected. That might be something that would be put them off. For a very small number, it could be the tax issue as well. For possibly a wider group, it is that interaction with officialdom when heretofore things were a bit looser. They might see an administrative burden. Those are what I imagine some of the reasons might be. They are not justifications in my mind but they are probably some of the reasons that might be cited. Far be it from me to speak on behalf of landlords.

Regarding no-fault evictions, I named a number of areas. Here is that delicate balance between the fact that it is a landlord's property and a tenant's home. The legislation being deliberated on by this House is very much around looking at that in the context of a prolonged Covid period. Clearly, it is that balance of rights, for example, if a family member needs to move into someone's house or a landlord is required to sell. I know things have been really tightened up in terms of renovation. If we go back three or four years ago, the renovation clause was used as a trigger for the end of a tenancy. That legislation has been tightened substantially so that a landlord now has to do a very substantial job that involves complying with energy efficiency regulations to end a tenancy on those grounds. No-fault evictions are dealt with in section 34(b) of the Act where at the end of a six-year period, the tenancy simply comes to an end. I guess the reason we are talking this morning about security of tenure is because public policy frames HAP as a de facto social housing support yet it does not provide the same security of tenure. We know that the private rental sector does not provide the same security of tenure generally. When HAP is claimed as a social housing support, it is quite different in its look and feel from a tenure security point of view compared to local authority or approved housing body housing.