Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate and respect the Deputy's views on this. I have a different analysis, however. I am always open to the possibility that one can be proven wrong. I have been right about many things in the past and wrong about other things. We will always keep an open mind on policy decisions.

With regard to Scotland, just because they are extending it does not mean it is the right thing to do. Has it worked in Scotland? What will they do on 30 September? Will they keep rolling it on repeatedly or will they then withdraw it? It will be interesting to see what happens in Scotland. I do not think anyone can say that Scotland is a great success when it comes to homelessness or matters such as this, but let us see. The difficulty I have is with a long-term eviction ban or rolling eviction ban, which is where we would end up. The Labour Party said to extend it to a few months. Sinn Féin said extend it to the end of the year and lift it just after Christmas. I do not honestly believe that would happen. We would end up rolling it on repeatedly, probably for years. What would the problem be with that? Number one, it creates a new form of homelessness in terms of people coming home from abroad. Some 30,000 Irish citizens come back to Ireland every year. Some of them own houses and apartments and are not able to move back into them. People who are going abroad to Australia, Dubai or America for a year or two probably would not rent out their place for fear of never being able to move back in They would probably pay the vacant property tax rather than risk never being able to move back into their property. We would, therefore, see an increase in vacancy.

What we need is more landlords, especially small landlords, coming into the market. Landlords will always leave. People die or cash their pensions. The big problem is not just landlords leaving in big numbers, however. It is so few coming in. A rolling or on-and-off eviction ban or long-term eviction ban would disincentivise small landlords. It would not be an issue so much for the institutions, by the way, because they do not seek vacant positions. It is the small landlords who would just say they are not going to do this, and that they would rather buy a property in Northern Ireland or Liverpool and rent that out instead and that is what they will do with their money. That would be a real shame if people who have money to invest and could provide somewhere for people to rent decide to buy a property in Spain, England, Derry or Belfast where they would not face these measures.