Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am generally supportive of more time being made available. That is a good idea, but I am concerned about one aspect of the amendment which refers to the District Court being required to have due regard for the ability of the tenant concerned to find alternative accommodation. All of us can speak only from our own experiences. The move by a local authority or a voluntary housing association to seek repossession happens only in extremis, and this legislation reflects the reality that a series of warnings is given and when the situation becomes serious, they move to repossess.

In cities and very large urban areas people have a degree of anonymity but in the towns and villages across rural Ireland, when it becomes inevitable that the local authority is seeking a repossession, that will become general knowledge in an area and the person being evicted will more than likely experience real difficulty in sourcing alternative accommodation because the alternative accommodation will be private rented accommodation, which is difficult to source in the first instance and will be inordinately more difficult to source when it is generally known to landlords that the person is being evicted because they have been involved in anti-social activity. The second and only other alternative is some type of hostel accommodation and I would be concerned that in putting that provision into the Bill we give the courts an opportunity to deprive local authorities of an activity of last resort where, in the public interest, somebody must be evicted. I fear we run the risk of somebody going into court and pleading their situation is so well known in the particular area that he or she will not be able to secure alternative accommodation. We have to think of the common good. We have to realise that where people are involved in the sale of drugs, for example, society has a right to say that there is a cost to be paid if, after repeated warnings, the tenant does not wise up and see the light. We have the right to defend the decent, honourable people who are living in these locations.

My experience has been a sad one because very often, when faced with the plight of anti-social behaviour, it is the victims, the decent people living in the area, who are driven out and, ultimately, their place is taken by people who are stronger and have the capacity to withstand the pressures. The participants in the anti-social behaviour, however, remain and carry on.

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