Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will briefly echo the point made by Deputy Crowe. While I do not believe it necessarily can be dealt with in this Bill, a small minority of tenants create a huge amount of damage to communities throughout the city and country. I do not expect this Bill to address that but it is worth a conversation at a later stage with the Minister of State, to which Members can bring all their experience. The Minister of State probably has seen the same effect in her own locality and there is very little legislation in this regard to protect communities. I grew up in a community that had a long history of rental accommodation. It was not too far from Trinity College and there was a great mixture of rented accommodation, both private and local authority, and purchased dwellings. The mix was there and it made for a fantastic, vibrant community that worked well and in which people knew one another. Perhaps, as we develop through regulation and reform, we may get back to the kind of system that obtained in the early 1960s, when communities were strong and no one was stigmatised for only renting, as everyone was part of that community.

I acknowledge this issue is not what the Bill before Members is addressing and I will revert briefly to the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill. The not-for-profit voluntary co-operative housing sector provides thousands of homes for families across Ireland. The voluntary housing sector is the uncelebrated success of social housing in Ireland and I commend the Minister of State on filling what has been a gap in the legislation and in regulation and on bringing forward the new residential tenancies board. While the Private Residential Tenancies Board, PRTB, did some good, opportunities now arise in this regard. There are approximately 700 approved housing bodies in Ireland and I have worked with many of them in my constituency. I found both the members of the board and the people who worked with them to be dedicated people who worked hard for the public good. Moreover, to be honest, I had very few complaints and found them very good at managing it. However, this Bill achieves a common good in conferring on tenants of such bodies the same rights that are given to private renters. This is both welcome and long overdue as is something that I worked on as a local councillor, as have Deputies Crowe and Dowds. At present, the only avenue for dispute resolution is the courts, which is far beyond the financial reach of tenants in this type of social housing. The Bill confirms their security of tenure, which is a crucial right for this type of housing. The knowledge that one cannot be evicted from one's home provides a level of comfort to long-term tenants and protects the roof over their heads. I suggest the provision for a four-year tenancy be increased to ten years at least as there is a need for security of tenure.

Over the next few years, as capital expenditure by the Government on building new social houses will be limited, the approved housing bodies, because they can raise finances off-book, probably will be the only show in town and there will be further development of the voluntary housing system, which I certainly would welcome. The reform regulation in this Bill is welcome. There always can be improvement and one should listen attentively to such suggestions, regardless of the area of the Chamber from which they come. I also will have some suggestions to make as this Bill progresses through the House. I ask the Minister of State to be conscious of the often-limited means of the approved housing bodies, which operate on tight budgets. Moreover, the Minister of State should seek to keep the registration fees as low as possible to recognise that associations charge low rents and I reiterate these are non-profitmaking bodies. The Minister of State is aware of the concerns in respect of ensuring the fees payable to the residential tenancies board will be at as low a level as those charged to private landlords.

The second issue, which was raised by Deputy Kitt earlier, concerns deposits and I believe a tenant deposit protection scheme is badly needed. The issue has long caused havoc in the sector and 43% of the disputes dealt with by the PRTB in 2010 were related to deposits. Organisations such as Threshold and the Union of Students in Ireland have long called for such a scheme. Moreover, there are successful examples in Britain on which we could model our own scheme. I note the Minister has received the Indecon report, which outlines a number of options in this regard. It is of crucial importance to provide certainty on this issue and to deliver on the commitments in the programme for Government. The aforementioned report indicates there would be an initial cost associated with such a scheme. However, I believe the long-term good would bring long-term savings. It would provide certainty to renters and ensuring that landlords are registered with the PRTB would provide legal clarity and would, over time, reduce the burden on the PRTB. In parallel with this, landlords must be given a mechanism to deal with rent arrears, antisocial behaviour and so on. Many landlords, who are portrayed in the media as being evil money-grabbers, work hard, perceive this to be a business or part of their pension and do not necessarily wish to try to exploit tenants. While the Indecon report noted the requirement to undertake management and administration of such a scheme, it could be done by the private sector. This is being done successfully by the private sector and Members should consider the recommendations in the Indecon report. I ask the Minister of State to start to build on that possibility of developing tenant deposit protection. I refer to the number of renters who have been exploited, with the collapse of the housing market. People today are more keen on renting for longer periods and one must recognise the market in Ireland has changed enormously. More people are staying as tenants for longer and their rights must be secured. I hope that the Minister of State will in due course address the deposit protection scheme.

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