Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support certain aspects of the Bill. I do not agree with some aspects of it. The Bill proposes to provide for greater security of tenure by making all tenancies over two months Part 4 tenancies. I am not going to talk that much about the Bill. Before Christmas, the Minister spoke about rent certainty. Deputies Catherine Connolly and Danny Healy-Rae spoke about it. One could count on two hands the number of houses built in Tipperary in the past three years. It is the same all around the country yet the Minister and his predecessor, Deputy Kelly, are announcing schemes and regurgitating money that has already been announced. Why are they not being built? I asked the Minister the second last day before the Christmas recess to call in the County and City Management Association and ask it why but he failed to do that. That will be his failure, as it was the failure of the previous Government. It did not build any houses.

As Deputy Connolly said, the housing assistance payment is being bulldozed on people. Banks continue to evict. I see how Cerberus bought mortgages worth €2.5 billion from Ulster Bank. This is a US vulture fund. It affects family farms and houses. This will happen right under the Minister's nose starting this year. All the celebrations for 2016 have just finished and this is going on. Michael Davitt would turn in his grave. When is the Government going to stop this nonsense? I have asked the Minister for Justice and Equality, the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance when they are going to rein in the courts and the county registrars in particular. The Minister of State, Deputy Dara Murphy, replied to a Topical Issue debate earlier. The county registrar in County Tipperary is gung-ho. She was sent to Wicklow but was brought back to Tipperary because not enough repossession orders were being granted.

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