Mr. John-Mark McCafferty:

The Senator's points go to the crux of the balance between the landlord's property and the tenant's home. If a relative is suddenly produced and if the landlord is compliant with the legislation, there is very little that can be done. That is if there is indeed a relative, as defined in the legislation, who needs to be housed. There is a delicate balance to be struck because in certain circumstances there might be a family member in need of a home. We need to be very clear and acknowledge that, currently, the private rented sector does not have secure tenure relative to, say, social housing. It is also less secure than owner occupation. If people do not pay their mortgage there are steps and processes in place to deal with that. Massive forbearance was, understandably, shown over the years of recession and there are very different timescales and so on in comparison to the non-payment of rent. That goes to the crux of HAP because HAP is predicated on being a de factoform of social housing, although that is debatable when there are such factors at play which mean a people's tenure can end relatively quickly, through no fault of their own, by virtue of a relative needing to move in. That might be a completely legitimate action but the implications for a family are huge because they could be facing having to live in emergency accommodation.