Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to the debate. The PRTB is doing a good job, which is more important now than ever before, given the changed circumstances in many houses and on many housing estates throughout the country. The board is under huge pressure because of a reduction in the number of its staff. The Minister has been lobbied to resource the agency better to carry out its functions in a more meaningful and efficient way.

The Bill is welcome but I wonder whether it goes far enough. Anti-social behaviour is a major problem in every town, including in Clonmel, Cahir, Cashel, Carrick-on-Suir, Fethard, Tipperary town and others in my constituency. Third parties can bring complaints to the PRTB but the process of adjudication and appeals is too slow and bureaucratic and the penalties are too weak. Generally, the Garda will not act unless a criminal offence has been committed but many offences could be prevented if gardaí had powers to act when complaints are made to them in the first place. Many older people cannot sleep at night because of noise and nuisance created by unruly tenants. In this day and age, it is not good enough, particularly for the elderly, who have paid for their houses and worked hard all their lives. In the times we live, people feel vulnerable at night because of the incidence of break ins and robberies throughout the country. It is, therefore, unfair for older people to have to tolerate noise and other anti-social behaviour. It is becoming more prevalent and needs to be tackled. The Ministers for Justice and Equality and the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Minister of State with responsibility for housing, who is present, need to tackle this issue. It is particularly unfair on older people who have paid for their houses but it is also unfair on people with young families.

Many changes have taken place in society and in the way people act and behave, but they must behave within the law. The law needs to be strengthened to protect and help everyone who lives in a housing estate or a residential area. The gardaí play their part, but we need forward thinking and planning. The Garda is under resourced but gardaí are playing their part. Last week, I called to my local Garda station and saw a plan for community support and involvement and to protect the people. A Garda station closed in a small rural area but the gardaí have put a plan in place to deal with ongoing policing in the future. The gardaí are prepared to work and co-operate, but we must all work together. The gardaí must be provided with legislation to help them deal with what is a major problem in many areas.

Many tenants, genuinely, cannot afford to pay rent but some deliberately will not pay it. That is a real problem. These tenants know from experience that if they do not pay the rent it will be at least a year before their landlord's complaint to the PRTB will be dealt with. That is not good enough. This is why I go back to my earlier point. The staff and resources need to be provided to make the board effective. The period of delay is too long for a landlord to have no rental income. Landlords have mortgages and household and water charges to pay and commitments to meet. Everyone must play the game and regulations need to be tightened up.

The days of changing locks overnight are gone, and rightly so, but now the law has swung full circle in favour of bad tenants. We need to redress that and change our attitudes. That must be part of the Bill. This is an opportune time to insert a speedy process for dealing with tenants who do not pay and are over-holding. Landlords, many of whom are in serious financial difficulty, should have such tenants evicted within one month.

This is important and timely legislation and can be of benefit to the many people who will be affected by it.

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