Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin is more than happy to support this legislation from the Social Democrats. I thank them for the introduction of this Bill. It is eminently sensible. I cannot see any reason, nor have I heard any reason on the floor of the Chamber tonight, why anybody would not support it enthusiastically and see it passing into legislation.

The extended notice to quit periods should be in place as a matter of course but they are particularly important in the current homelessness crisis. Deputies are dealing with families who have received notices to quit. While housing assistance payment, HAP, accommodation is coming on stream it is happening incredibly slowly. I deal with families every week who find that securing private rental accommodation after they get a notice to quit can take three, four, five and six months because there are far more people out there looking for rental properties than there are rental properties available. To stem the flow of families in particular into homelessness, the proposals in the Bill would be preventive measures that should remain on the Statute Book afterwards as general tenants' protections.

The Minister spoke of unintended consequences. When the Minister was on "Morning Ireland" yesterday I noted with interest that he

seemed to think by introducing these changes a tenant who moves into a property and does not pay his or her rent could avail of these measures. The Minister has not repeated that today and I presume it is because his officials told him that no such thing is possible under current legislation. There is a specific provision that would prevent such an occurrence; if a person does not pay the rent he or she is subject to a 14-day notice and a 28-day notice to quit, irrespective of how long the person has lived in the property. I am sure the Minister can confirm that to the House in his remarks later.

The second measure in the Bill covers access to the rental rate of the last tenant. The Minister is correct that the current legislation requires the landlord to give people that information. We are aware, however, that landlords are not doing this. If one considers the dramatic rise in asking rents on daft.ieor myhome.iewe can see a two-tier rental market. People like me who are long-term rental tenants are availing of the average rents and our landlords are complying, but new tenancies are way beyond the 4% limit. Having some independent check and verification for tenants is a good thing and I can see no reason it would not be supported.

With regard to the increase in the maximum fine, the Minister has said that it would not be too long before a bad landlord racks up €15,000 worth of fines. This means that for a tenant to be properly protected he or she has to wait for multiple breaches of the legislation before a serious punishment and serious deterrent is available. The problem with enforcement of the rent pressure zones is that it is up to tenants to police it and to take cases to the Residential Tenancies Board or elsewhere. This is fine if the tenant has a relatively secure tenancy, but it is simply not adequate that those at the bottom end of the rental market in very vulnerable circumstances should self-police an already badly designed rent pressure zone system. A stronger first-off offence fine is one good way of ensuring that the measures, limited as they are, are properly adhered to.

Earlier in this debate the Minister said he is not opposing the Bill. This is supposed to sound as though he is not actually against it. I believe that the Minister should just be straight with us; he does not support these measures and we will not see them in the forthcoming legislation around the enforcement powers of the Residential Tenancies Board. The fact of the matter is that the Minister is simply too embarrassed to lose a vote and so he will not force a vote on it. We have to get past this nonsense of people saying they are not opposing something. The Minister should tell people if he is not in favour of stronger protections for tenants, tell people he is not in favour of an independent check for tenants in rent reviews and tell people that he does not want stronger deterrents and punishments for landlords because that would be much more honest than the position we have in front of us today. The Minister is correct that it is a minority of landlords but they are landlords who nonetheless breach the legislation.

The reality for renters is that the rent pressure zones are not working. They are not constraining rents to such an extent that people are able to get by. The evidence we have from all the rental indicators is that average rents have gone up by 10% to 11% since the measure was introduced. We also see that asking rents are at astronomically higher prices than average rents. Not only do we need to see the proposed measures in this Bill we also need to see and hear the Government accept that rent pressure zones have not worked and it needs to go back to the proposal that many in this House have supported and introduce legislation that links rent reviews to an index such as the consumer price index to give renters the real protections they deserve.

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