Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share time with Deputies Tom Hayes and Sean Conlan.

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the debate. This amending Bill is important and timely, reflecting the growing move in society away from owning a home to renting. The Irish practice of home and property ownership is, rightly, deeply ingrained, given our historic experiences of famine and the land war. However, in more recent years, there has been a trend towards the norm on the Continent of renting, not just as a short-term option but even when establishing a family home. According to the 2011 census, the rate of home ownership dropped from 74.7% to 69.7% between 2006 and 2011. In my town of Navan, the rate has dropped from 73.2% to 67.43%. The rates in other towns such as Trim and Enfield reflect the decrease in the national average, according to the CSO figures. Our laws and the size and quality of apartments and other units have been slow to follow European trends fully and the Bill is a welcome step in the right direction.

I welcome that the fact that PRTB will be renamed the residential tenancies board and that since 2010, it has been self-financing. This marks the board out from many other State agencies and quangos that do not pay their own way, leading to increasing public cynicism about their relevance and about public institutions generally. We must be wary, however, as a Parliament, in voting through increases in powers and responsibilities of the day-to-day workload of the board if there are no plans to provide additional funding to meet them. We expect a great deal from the board and I have received many queries through my office over the years regarding services people had hoped they would get from the board. There can be delays due to staff shortages and workload and there have also been problems with the board's powers to follow up on cases but that is being addressed in the legislation, especially in regard to tenants who disappear or move on. The landlord generally owns the house and can be contacted and dealt with. There are consequence for him or her but it is easy for tenants to disappear or move on and the board does not always have the powers, time or funding to chase them to enforce fines or to ensure they correct what they have done. We need to ensure this is borne in mind when additional powers are given to the board.

In this regard, I am concerned with section 16, which will terminate the practice of charging a fee of €25 for mediation services, even though the Bill and many of the board's reports propose to encourage more mediation. While I recognise the principle underpinning this is to increase the take-up of mediation as an option, this could be done by way of a fee reduction or another form of incentivisation rather than wiping out an important income stream for a self-financing agency. I would welcome the Minister of State's feedback on this matter. Perhaps I am missing something and the Minister of State could outline the reason for this.

Similarly, the number of board members will reduce from 15 to 12 and while, on paper, it is often wise to reduce the size of boards to save money, we are going through tough times and the board will face an increased workload with a reduced staff. There is a great deal of international evidence that a board comprising 12 members is the optimum in the context of decision-making and achieving outcomes. If that is the case, I accept it, once it is recognised that we are asking the board to do much more as its powers are increased. The last thing I want is more backlogs. The board does not carry out the day-to-day functions but it makes decisions in this regard.

The voluntary and co-operative housing sector is doing fantastic work in every county providing safe and secure accommodation, often for those on the margins of society, for whom a home provides a sense of dignity and self-worth, which is often life changing. In my home town, good work is done by Navan Mental Health Housing Association, which is based in Flower Hill. Nationally, 700 voluntary and co-operative bodies have approved housing status, providing a total of 25,263 housing units or homes, as I prefer to call them. Too often we call them units when they are people's homes. The voluntary and co-operative housing sector may find it difficult to raise the registration fee of €90 per tenancy. Its drive and ethos is different, as it is not-for-profit. Rents are generally well below market rates and those paying them are on social welfare supports. This should be borne in mind. Is there scope for a reduced registration fee, even for a settling in period? Perhaps a balance could be struck by retaining the mediation service fee and reducing the registration fee for not-for-profit bodies. I am conscious I have not been present for all the contributions to the debate and I may have missed the reasoning behind this. The flip side is there are many advantages for the tenant and landlord in this sector as the expensive avenue of redress to the courts is being removed for many of the day-to-day disputes that arise. This benefit cannot be highlighted enough.

As a Member for Meath West, I have gathered much evidence from my clinics and contacts with local public representatives about the need for a deposit protection scheme and I am sure other Members are no different. The issues regarding deposits are often linked to disputes over rent arrears which, in turn, are often linked to disputes about the quality of accommodation and failure to deal with problems repeatedly flagged for attention. Our student population and young adults setting out on their careers are particularly vulnerable in this regard. Tenants in this age group are rarely always angels but there can be plenty of devils among landlords who take advantage of generalisations about students and young people to provide excuses for retaining part or all of a deposit. While this is deeply unfair it is also, sadly, common. England, Scotland, Wales and New Zealand, which are fellow common law jurisdictions, have deposit protection schemes. These are worthy of study, not for the sake of it, but in a strong, solution focused way to deliver for people in the expanding rental sector. I urge the Minister of State to examine this and drive such a scheme forward under this or future legislation. It is an issue for many groups in society and we need to do all we can to protect them.

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