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

In all of the Government parties' talk in recent months about the housing emergency, a few central issues have been identified but nowhere has the Government shown the will, conviction or purpose to address one of the main contributors to the emergency, namely, the private rented sector. We must address the issues in that regard for renters and landlords alike. There is public support to solve the housing emergency, but the Government has not put any coherent or long-term strategy in place to address it. This is particularly evident where the private rented sector is considered. Sinn Féin introduced the Rent Certainty Bill in the previous term because rent certainty and security of tenure were major issues for families across the State. Our Bill was voted down by the Government and the Minister's Fianna Fáil colleagues.

The Bill aims to provide greater protections to private rental tenants in terms of tenancies, notices to quit and rent reviews. These measures would help many families to avoid homelessness. Last month, the quarterly rental report from Daft.ieshowed that average rents across the State were well over €1,000 per month. In Dublin, the figure was more than €1,500. The situation is out of control and rents are at unsustainable levels. It is madness. In addition, one quarter of all people in Dublin are living in the private rented sector. In order to build sustainable communities, there must be some move towards providing for five, ten or 20-year leases.

A further serious situation sees people being evicted despite being good tenants and up-to-date with rent. A good proportion of these are being evicted because their landlords are selling the properties, usually to banks or vulture funds. The Government's Tyrrelstown agreement, which was not agreed by the people in the Gallery, legislates for people with a large number of properties and rightly forces them to pass on those properties with tenants in place. Where is the Tyrrelstown agreement for portfolios with a smaller number of properties? It is not there and the owners of smaller property portfolios can evict many tenants because they believe they can get more money for vacant properties.

The Private Members' Bill before us will address that issue and remove the sale of property as grounds for serving a notice to quit. This is an important point. It is our job as legislators to legislate. For many renters, this is a serious concern that the Government cannot ignore any longer.

While we support the majority of the Bill's proposals, there are elements we have difficulty with but, on balance, it is a good Bill and we will support it.

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