Mr. Maurice Deverell:

The Bill needs to be drafted fully and go through many more stages before we would think of it from a legal point of view. However, we need to think about the effects of this legislation. Is it worthwhile putting through? How much will it help? Tenants already have the option to just buy it on the open market like everybody else. The local authorities can buy it on the open market like everybody else.

One of our biggest worries concerns councils and timelines. One of our members recently settled with Dublin City Council to sell a property. It was all done and it was a vacant older property. They were settling, no other paperwork was needed and the lease was fine. This was back in October 2022. They got the money out of Dublin City Council in August 2023, ten months later. This has no timeline for the council to do stuff within a reasonable timeframe, as there would be if it were a private buyer. There is the cash buyer end of it.

Another area that has not been touched on but perhaps should be is under Part V of the planning legislation, which dictates that up to 20% of properties go to social housing. There is nothing in this legislation to limit the number of properties going to council housing. That is dangerous because of the management company in the blocks. It already happened in the UK with cladding. If a council owns more than 50% of the flats in a particular block, the other private members get whacked down, so to speak, at the AGM or at the meeting where it is decided what they will do on the block. There is nothing in this legislation to limit, although it is forced upon the landlord, and it will change the demographics of the block.