Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank everybody who attended the debate and those who contributed and pledged their strong support. I was glad to note that support was unanimous on this side of the House. I am, however, disappointment with the response from Government. Not opposing does not amount to the same thing as supporting. The response of the Government generally has been mealy-mouthed and disappointing in so far as these are measures that could be implemented very quickly and could make a real difference to people's lives. Unfortunately, the Minister of State has not given a commitment to see this Bill through to the end.

The Bill is essentially about doing three very straightforward things which would help tenants. First, it is about extending the notice period. This has been recommended by the DKM-ESRI report to which the Minister of State alluded. The Government went with the extension of the notice periods only in the case of tenancies in excess of five years. There is a very real problem with shorter term tenancies where people have been in a tenancy for only one, two or three years. In those circumstances their situations are very precarious. They live with the danger and threat of their landlord deciding he or she will sell the property or claim he or she will move somebody in, very often in an attempt to get a higher rent. That is what the housing agencies are saying. One of the main routes into homelessness is when tenants are told by their landlords they have to get out for one of those exempted reasons. The measure in this Bill, which would give them some breathing space and a reasonable amount of time to find alternative accommodation in the present difficult situation, is a fair proposal and something to which the Government should be committed. It would undoubtedly stem the flow of people into homelessness.

The second provision is to give tenants a right to access details of rents and the rent paid by their predecessors in the accommodation. The Minister, Deputy Murphy, talked about the success of the rent pressure zones. That is a very questionable statement to make. In the Dublin area, where there are rent pressure zones, rent increased by 10% last year. In Cork, where there are rent pressure zones, it increased by 11%. How else does one explain those excessive increases except to say there was clear abuse of the system and that there were many situations where tenants were evicted and new tenants brought in, with the landlord hiking up the rent? That is the only explanation for those huge increases. It is cold comfort to tenants to hear the Minister say a tenant who is evicted and is going into a new property can always look at the general rents in the area. That has nothing to do with it. It is about looking at how they can establish their own rights in terms of ensuring the landlord is not hiking up the rent and is obeying the law. There is no way of checking that at the moment and that is why it is essential the register to be held by the RTB is accessible to new tenants to ensure there is no rent gouging. The huge suspicion is that it is widespread.

The third provision is to introduce stiffer penalties and higher fines for landlords who breach the legislation. We know this is going on.

The penalties there at the moment are derisory. A maximum fine of €4,000 represents approximately two months rent in the Dublin area, or even less than that. A landlord can take that hit if, in return, he is in a position to hike up the next tenant's rent by 10%. That is what is happening now. We are saying that there is a need to strengthen the penalties there to increase the maximum fine for breaches of the law and that that would act as a significant deterrent to landlords who unfortunately do not respect the law as it stands.

There are three very straightforward measures. Nobody is suggesting that it is a silver bullet to deal with a wide range of issues affecting the rental sector. We all accept that there is an urgency about addressing things such as the exemption for selling a house. That does not apply in other countries where, if a landlord decides to sell, the tenant has security of tenure and the house can be sold while the tenancy remains. There are many other things such as measures to safeguard the tenants themselves but also ensure that tenants take their responsibilities as tenants seriously. We must accept that. There is an issue in the case of a small number of tenants who do not abide by the law, or pay their rent on time and who do not maintain their properties. That must also be dealt with but we need balance. We also need to have an efficient and timely dispute resolution system which is adequately resourced, which we do not have now. In the private rental sector, as in so many other aspects of Irish life, a body is in place and there are theoretical rules and regulations but unless we resource the regulatory body properly and enable it to do its job, it will be a watchdog without teeth. That is the problem and it is how it is with the RTB now.

I heard the Minister's comments on Morning Ireland when he was asked if he would be supporting this Bill. He talked some nonsense, saying that one could not have a situation where a tenant who was in a property for three days and had not paid a deposit or rent would be entitled to notice of 90 days. It was beneath the Minister to make such a comment. It was very wrong of him to do so because it does not apply. Who would have a tenant in their property without having paid a deposit or rent? It is a complete red herring and it was quite disingenuous of the Minister. This Bill is about proper law abiding tenants who are in properties to ensure that they are given a fair amount of time to find alternative accommodation so that we can help to avoid more and more families being driven into homelessness. That is what it is about.

I was very struck by the amount of emphasis that the Minister of State put on the rights of landlords in his contribution. He spoke about stability and confidence. Tenants also have a right to stability and should have a right to security and to believe and be confident that if they obey the rules and pay their rent that they will have security in their own home. Unfortunately that is not the situation now. We all accept that we need to introduce many different measures. The Minister has promised various measures will be taken. There have been many promises about housing from this Government and the last and we are still waiting for many of them to be implemented. We will not hold our breath for the raft of promises which the Minister has made but in the meantime, these are measures which would make a real and substantial difference to the lives of many people who are now in shorter-term tenancies. It would give them some protection and security. These measures could be introduced very quickly. The first and third measures could be introduced by the stroke of a pen. I do not see any reason, if there is majority support in the House for these measures, we cannot move ahead and progress this legislation.

I ask the Minister of State to be more generous in his approach and more practical because that is what this legislation is about and to reconsider whether he will give his wholehearted support to protecting tenants in this vulnerable situation and to stemming the flow of homelessness. It is in his hands. It is also in the hands of the Opposition given that a majority of those here this evening have pledged their support for this legislation. For that reason, it must be progressed.

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