Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will move our amendments in due course. I want to focus on one amendment that I am asking the Minister to take very seriously. When the Minister spoke about this Bill at the Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, he christened his plan to make changes in this regard the "Tyrrelstown amendment". When he gave an interview on the Seán O'Rourke programme on RTE radio last week, he said he was introducing a Tyrrelstown amendment to protect people in properties - such as those in the Tyrrelstown development that gave rise to this amendment - that are owned by vulture funds. It was a very deceptive comment because the Minister is doing nothing of the sort. He did not mention on the radio that he was going to propose an increase in the number of properties provided for in the amendment from five, as it was in the Seanad amendment, to ten. Like other Deputies, I have proposed an amendment in this regard because it is not acceptable to allow ten families to be evicted by a vulture fund in one fell swoop.  I ask the Minister to think of the impact on a community of ten families leaving an estate.  If there are three or four children in each family, there could be up to 40 children leaving the local school.  That is exactly what this means.  It is happening now in Dublin and elsewhere.

The Minister has included many loopholes in this section of the Bill. One of the loopholes allows a property owner to be exempted from these requirements if he or she can argue that they are unduly onerous on the basis that they will result in him or her losing 20% of the value of the properties he or she is selling. Is the Minister seriously telling us this is a suitable balance? Does he think it is fair enough for a landlord to evict ten families? The Minister might think this will slow down the rate of evictions but I suggest it will not have that much of an impact. It is estimated from the meetings we have had in the Tyrrelstown community that between 30 and 40 families in the area have received eviction notices. The Minister's original amendment, which set the relevant number at 20, would not have had that much of an impact. Now he is proposing to reduce the figure to ten, which will slow this activity somewhat. Why should people who have lived in homes for eight years, in many cases, be treated like this?  I know of a man, Martin Malinovsky, who has paid €120,000 to rent the house in which he is living.  The vulture fund increased his rent by 28% in November.  It is now resorting to such tactics as it looks for any possible way of getting people out.

I ask the Minister to do two things if he is serious about protecting people from vulture funds. There is an onus on him to do something because Fine Gael, and particularly, the Minister, Deputy Noonan, put out the red carpet for these funds.  I ask the Minister, Deputy Coveney, to support the amendment and to do something simple that was done by Deputy Alan Kelly, for all his many sins, when he served as Minister. He met the residents' group and I think that is the least the current Minister can do now.  The Minister, Deputy Coveney, has penned an amendment without consulting the residents.  Will he meet them now?  I will explain their plight very quickly.  A total of 18 houses have now been purchased by a housing agency. This welcome development was campaigned and called for by the tenants. I think it might be the first time it has happened with tenants in situ.  The difficulty is that it caters only for those whose houses have been bought by the housing agency - people are still facing eviction if their houses have not been bought - and those who are on the social housing lists.  People like Martin Malinovsky, who is paying a rent of €1,200, would be well able to pay a mortgage.  He is asking the Government to meet him and others to discuss an affordable mortgage scheme.  I think it is a simple request and an important one.  I ask the Minister to agree to set some time aside in the new year to look at how this might be done. Some of the way has been gone.

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