Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I listened carefully to the Minister's reply. He has not dealt with the central issue raised by me. On the issue concerning long-term and short-term tenancies, Deputy Paul Murphy made a point, on which I disagree with him, that it will not become an issue between landlords and tenants. It will become an issue in private rental accommodation in many cases given the short-term nature of tenancies. The issue will arise given the precarious and short-term nature of tenancies in this State. We are not Germany or Holland. We do not have people in rental housing belonging to housing trusts for life or perhaps ten, 20 or 30 years. It is common, and I have come across it often, to have several different tenancies of a house within the one year. A problem will arise. The tenant of a local authority or a voluntary housing association will wind up pretty much in the same situation as an owner-occupier. Joe Bloggs will rent from the local authority and the information will be passed on by the local authority to Uisce Éireann. The local authorities and the housing associations will have fulfilled their responsibilities in that case so it will be a matter between the tenant and Uisce Éireann. The local authority or the voluntary housing association will be caught in the middle. Their obligation, as set out in the Minister's amendment, is to provide the information. A failure to do so leads to a penalty and I am sure the voluntary housing bodies or the local authorities will not allow themselves to get into that situation.

Assuming the landlord complies with the requirement, a problem can arise if there is a dispute between them given the short-term nature of tenancies. The problem will be between Irish Water and the tenant in private rented accommodation in many cases. The Government has not dealt with the issue of the meter reading. Perhaps I am not explaining it very well, but if tenant A is in a house and surrenders the tenancy or is served notice to quite because the landlord wants to increase the rent or says he is going to sell the house or whatever else, and tenant A moves out, there is only a 1 in 91 chance that there will be a correlation between the date the tenant moves out and the date of the meter reading because there are 365 days in the year and four quarterly bills. There is only a 1 in 91 chance the dates will coincide. If tenant A moves out on any of the other 90 days in the quarter, the problem will be that the meter will not have been read. This is where a problem will arise and that is only one of the problems. I know and the Minister knows and I have seen landlords doing this already with electricity bills - they will put unpaid bills onto the new tenancy. I have given the advice to people going into private rented accommodation to photograph the meter on the day they enter the property. The Minister is waving his hand at me but they cannot do that in the case of Uisce Éireann because the meter is in the ground. One cannot read the meter. It is not possible to read the one outside my door. This is where a problem will arise. The problem also is that if the meter has not been read and it is not due to be read for another month or two months, tenant A who is moving out cannot pay the bill, which means he cannot get his deposit back, but he needs the deposit to move onto the next property. In my neck of the woods, landlords were happy enough to take the equivalent of a months rent in advance as a deposit. Now they are looking for both. Now they are looking for €1,800 or €2,000 in some cases. This is causing a problem. This will cause an added problem.

The Minister referred to this in his speech yesterday. He said:

The Government reiterated its commitment in May to legislate in these areas, principally, regarding liability for domestic water charges and the process of registering with Irish Water and in particular, clarifying the registration process in respect of landlord-tenant relationships. Today, I am fulfilling these commitments through the amendments proposed to water legislation.

The Minister was referring to this legislation. He went on to say that measures announced in May to place a requirement on a landlord to retain a tenant's deposit until the tenant provides evidence that he has paid the water charges would be brought forward shortly in a forthcoming Bill. Which Bill is the Minister referring to? He might set that out for the House. We would be interested to know what Bill the Minister will use to bring forward that measure.

This is the crux of it. Can the Minister see what he is suggesting? He refers to a tenant providing evidence. Even if a tenant is willing to pay, how can he provide evidence if he does not have the evidence? These people will be caught in a see-saw situation. Let us make no mistake about it. It does not matter which way the Minister tries to explain it. I foresee legions of these people joining the legions of people who are already homeless. The Minister heard this in County Laois on the day he was there.

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