Mr. David Hall:

We sent in the opening statement so I will be brief. For clarity, personally I am not a landlord. I have a dual role in the sense that I am chief executive of iCare Housing which is an approved housing body and a voluntary landlord with 510 homes and 1,500 tenants.

This statement has been circulated and everyone has read it so I will be brief in commentary around it. This is a relief that some find somewhat controversial in being given to landlords. It is as though there is a fire, and there is a question mark as to whether a levy is to be put on the fire brigade. There is a housing crisis which is a major issue and is now an emergency. Therefore this is a small relief being given to landlords. It should be much greater. Mr. Kennedy and his colleagues will know much more about this from the sector. We need rented properties and landlords. We can vilify landlords as much as we want but ultimately we need landlords. We need good, honest, decent landlords, which the majority of landlords are. Vilifying landlords, indeed criticising a small element of relief - and let us be absolutely clear, this is a small element of relief being given in one part of a proposal to solve a very complex and difficult situation that arises within the country at the moment - is pointless. There is an abject failure of former policy in regard to sorting out the housing situation. This is now a knee-jerk reaction to come up to speed with some of the vulture funds which have been given significant relief over the past number of years. They have been encouraged and incentivised on a great scale ahead of normal landlords. Statistically 80% of those have one and two properties. Everybody in this House is dealing with those and their residents or tenants for a long time. The relief involved is small. Somebody with a €400,000 property and even a €200,000 loan whose case I was looking at today, is getting rent of €2,500 and will pay 40% of that in tax. What would possess anybody to get involved in a system that effectively funds a State service - and they are providing a service to the State - but is not necessarily profitable?

We have to remember the marketplace is completely different now that we have significant interest rate rises as has happened over the past 12 months. This makes things very volatile for landlords. I am not speaking for landlords, I am speaking for those who have mortgages, of whom some are landlords many of whom have mortgage difficulties and challenges themselves. The secondary part of the Bill obviously purports to give some rent-back scheme, similar to renters, in order to give them some tax back or some credit in the same way. The levels at which the rates have increased and the amount of money being paid per month and per year dwarfs this into insignificance. It is a welcome attempt but it is too little and some will say, too late, as many will be under immense difficulty from a mortgage holder’s perspective and indeed from a landlord's perspective. This is welcome and a couple of questions will arise during this on the rent-a-room scheme. Does it extend to the rent-a-room scheme? Why only apply it to mortgages of €80,000? Why not apply it to mortgages above €500,000? A few questions arise. Ultimately, this is an emergency. When the banks got into difficulty, as we all remember, 296 pages of legislation was produced and a significant amount of money was involved, which was needed at the time. A similar response is needed now. A couple of quid to landlords is welcome. We need landlords more than they need us.