Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

In the third quarter there were 65 new housing association homes, and for the year as a whole the figure was 185. The totals combined for the entire year come to 346 local authority homes. In percentage terms, 10,509 homes were built in the State last year, of which 346 were local authority homes, amounting to a historical low of 3%. There were 42 homes in Dublin City Council in the first three quarters, 20 in South Dublin County Council, 36 in Fingal, 16 in Limerick and a mere one in Cork City Council.

The main objection has been the six-month compensation measure for moving in the family. Members in this House have to listen to organisations like Threshold which are saying there has been a real increase in dubious terminations in the recent past, with the main excuse for getting people out no longer sale but for a family member to move in. Most of those claims are dubious and this Bill would act as a deterrent to them. There are genuine cases, of course, such as marriage breakdown, and that is why we are not proposing a ban, but there needs to be a balance between the rights of the landlord and those of the tenants because it is a real disruption to anyone's life to have to leave, and in that context six months is not unreasonable.

A number of speakers, including Deputies Cowen and Coveney, cited the Constitution as grounds for not going forward. Why do they not bring forward proposals to change the Constitution? We would support them if they did but they will not because they are using it as an excuse to defend private property interests.

I wanted to make some points about the interventions of Fianna Fáil Deputies. As I do not have time, I will quote some of the language that was used, namely, "the Bill is a blunt instrument" and "Wilfully creating upheaval". The Deputies in question also referred to having grave concerns about a flawed Bill that is over-simplistic and hugely excessive in nature. What is hugely excessive is the language that those Deputies are using. If one were to ask tenants throughout the country if they support this Bill, I would say that, almost without exception, they would say "Yes". If one were to landlords, with a few honourable exceptions, the vast majority would be opposed to it.

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