Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Farrelly for answering. I acknowledge what the Chair said about this being about tenancies in situ. Of course, I want to see people who are in tenancies at present staying where they are and I want to see people who want to sell their properties who have tenants in situallowed sell their property. However, I also want to make sure that there is fairness across the board. I want to see people who are bad tenants or bad landlords dealt with as well because they are the ones who are causing an awful lot of problems. A good landlord does not want to get rid of a good tenant and a good tenant does not want to get rid of a good landlord. In the case that we have accidental landlords, which we have, they should be given the opportunity to have their building purchased at a reasonable cost so that everyone is happy and the tenants remain in situ. That is something I encourage. I accept it was brought in from the tenancy Act.

I would have a lot of tenants in my area if it came back to infrastructure and the funding for infrastructure was fairly put out across the country. If the Government and its predecessors had invested in infrastructure, we would have all the units that we require to house everyone in Ireland. You cannot build houses, apartments or anything in this country unless you have the proper infrastructure. If I had it in Limerick, we would not have an issue in Limerick.