Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleagues for giving me the opportunity to speak now as I have an engagement later on. I believe that I must declare what could be construed as an interest in this matter before I speak.

I thank those involved in "Prime Time Investigates" for the great work they did in highlighting this very serious issue. If that television programme can make the living conditions of people such as those highlighted in the programme better, that is to be applauded. There are several things that those involved in providing rental accommodation should be doing. First, they should be providing a safe and proper place for people to live - a proper environment. They should also be registering their property, paying tax on their income and doing everything above board. In saying all of that, there is one thing of which we must be very careful. These types of accommodation - and rightly so - are not going to be here in the future but where are the people who have to move out of such places going to live? We must ensure that they can have a safe, affordable and proper place to live. We are sorting one problem but we are creating another one. Where are these people going to go? We are talking about people - families and individuals - who are entitled to respect and who are entitled to have a proper place to live. We must be very careful in that regard.

We must also be very mindful of the fact that there are countless people involved in providing accommodation who do it right. They do everything above board. They have proper properties, they pay their taxes and they are inspected by their local authorities. I want to compliment local authorities, such as Kerry County Council, which are stringent about carrying out checks on RAS and HAP properties and other properties with which they are involved. I do not want to see a situation arising where everybody is tarred with the same brush. I do not want to see respectable people who are involved in the rental of properties being tarred with the same brush or to hear people saying that they are all the same because they are not all the same. There are respectable people who rent properties and who run their affairs as a proper business. They keep their noses clean and they do it right. The behaviour that we saw the other night would be shocking to anybody - so many people living in one room together should not be tolerated.

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling the motion before us and I also thank my colleagues for giving me the opportunity to speak on it.

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