Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Yes, but they need indefinite security of tenure.

We need real rights for tenants in order that they do not have to worry every year about whether they will have a roof over their heads. The Bill proposes to extend the notice period for rent increases from 90 days to 180 days and the notice period for eviction after five years of tenancy to at least one full year. It categorises banks and receivers as landlords in order that they acquire proper obligations as landlords. Critically, as Deputy Coppinger stated, the Bill would ensure that if people use the excuse that a family member is to move into a property, they will have to pay compensation to the tenant. It proposes to end the practice of justifying or allowing evictions on the basis that a property is being sold. Many landlords are using these excuses for the purpose of exploiting the spiralling rent crisis and evicting people for no other reason than greed and to make money.

When we argue that these types of measures should be taken, the Minister resists by arguing that they would somehow disincentivise landlords and investors from entering the rental sector and suggesting that investors would flee the sector. The truth, however, is that the opposite has occurred and the private rental sector has grown dramatically. Since 2011, the number of people living in private rented accommodation has increased by 61% to 328,000. Far from fleeing the sector, landlords and investors - people with money - are flooding into the market because they are making a killing from spiralling rents and the misery being suffered by those who are being made homeless or charged extortionate rents. The brutality of some of these people, particularly the vulture funds, is shocking. As I may have to provide more details of this later in the week, I will not go much detail now.

On the Minister's rent certainty proposals introduced before Christmas to allow annual rent increases of 4%, some landlords moved quickly to get in before the curtain came down. I am dealing with an entire apartment block that is in the hands of receivers. I am fairly sure it is owned by a vulture fund. On the day before the legislation was enacted, every single tenant received a letter indicating that their rent was being jacked up by between 50% and 60%. The company clearly understood the law perfectly because it cited the new legislation. It is sickening cynicism and greed to jack up rents two days before Christmas and one day before the legislation was commenced in the knowledge that an attempt was being made to limit rent increases. I suspect we will see much more of this throughout the country. The Minister was warned about this in the lengthy debate on the legislation in the House when we highlighted the inadequacies of his rent certainty measures. This example shows the level of cynicism, greed and cruelty of many of the vulture funds and landlords who are exploiting the housing and homelessness crisis. It is against that background that serious rights for tenants and serious controls on landlords are required.

As Deputy Coppinger correctly stated, the idea that the family home issue, constitutional rights, apparent legal rights and private property should be somehow used as an excuse in these circumstances is utter nonsense because the individuals and companies in question are in a business. According the same rights to private property in circumstances where people are in a business is ridiculous. I note that the legal problems with the constitutional right to private property disappear when it suits the political establishment, for example, when compulsory purchase orders are needed for roads and so on. In addition, all the constitutional problems suddenly disappeared when the Minister introduced his rent certainty proposal. I suspect that these constitutional restraints are highly dubious and could be challenged on the basis of the constitutional imperatives which allow us to reconcile those rights with the exercise of the common good.

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