Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this positive and constructive Bill and commend the work of Deputy Catherine Murphy in this regard. I ask that the Government consider its focus. It is disappointing that the Bill is being opposed by the Government. Far too often the Government appears to view legislation from this side of the House as an excuse to practice its dissection skills. It sets out to pull apart legislation rather than build on it. On the few occasions I presented legislation before this Government, I received this treatment. Instead of recognising the need for the legislation and allowing it to be built on at further Stages, the respective Ministers or Ministers of State sought to highlight minor flaws in it, as they found it, and took it upon themselves to engage in a lecturely critique of my legislative skills. This is pointless engagement. If an issue is important, it should be addressed. If a Bill is constructive, it can be built on. The Government should not oppose legislation for the sake of it, as the Government often feigns we on this side of the House do.

This Bill recognises a flaw which went unnoticed in the 2011 Act, a flaw missed due to the incredibly protracted and stalled nature of its passage through the House. The Act which this Bill seeks to amend was published in 2009. It sets out the basis for how common areas should be managed in multi-unit developments.

Unfortunately, the definition of this term was far too vague to fit the intention of the Government at the time. While the Act made sense and was intended to deal with a real need, under scrutiny, it has been shown to fail to provide a sufficiently tight definition to achieve its objective properly. Simply put, multi-unit developments are apartment complexes, commercial developments or a combination of both, with retail units on the ground floor and residences on the upper floors. They have become common across the urban landscape, from small towns to cities.

A multi-development unit is defined in the Act as a development on which stands a building or buildings comprising a unit or units, which has amenities, facilities or services for sharing the development and contains no fewer than five residential units. While this definition appears to be sufficient, it has since been deemed to have been too broad and vague and has been applied to conventional housing, including semi-detached and terraced homes and duplex complexes, on the same site. The outworking of this is that there is a legal requirement for a management company to be established in a large number of cases where this is not necessary or practical and has been unworkable.

On first reading, I did not identify this problem in the original Act. It is for this reason that legal experts are required to oversee legislation at all stages to consider unintended consequences. While I cannot be certain that the Bill before us would not also have unintended consequences, I am certain that an amendment to the Act is needed. The Government should take the opportunity to allow the Bill to advance, before subjecting it to expert scrutiny. It should use it as a starting point for a new Act that will deal with a problem the Government has not yet addressed.

We could also take this opportunity to examine other issues that arise from the Act and its failings. Under the 2011 Act, tenants have no right to representation on the boards of their management companies, despite the important responsibilities and powers these companies have in respect of developments. This failing must be addressed by empowering tenants and providing them with a voice on management companies and elsewhere in the housing market. As a group, tenants are voiceless and, unlike landlords and developers, they do not have a lobby group to represent them. While charities and community bodies play a role in this area, tenants do not have a group that works exclusively to protect their rights. The Government includes 24 Fine Gael Party Deputies who are landlords, although the number may fall to 23 as Deputy Barry has decided he cannot hack being unable to raise the rent on his properties for two years. The Cabinet and Government benches include few, if any, tenants and while there are a small number of tenants in the House, they are outnumbered by home owners, landlords and developers.

The State must support the establishment of a tenants union to which tenants would have a right to affiliate and from which they could seek help. Given the new measures announced by the Government this week, the supports available to the Private Residential Tenancies Board must be enhanced to enable it to do its job properly.

I have personal experience of problems with management companies, including issues with common areas, buildings insurance, health and safety and parking. Their powers to clamp vehicles in parking spaces on developments is particularly contentious. Ba mhaith liom tacaíocht a thabairt don Bhille seo.

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