Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will not delay people long. There are many positives in the Bill. We know the situation in Dublin and in the larger cities, but also in all counties and in smaller towns. I refer to the problems of housing and homelessness in this country. We have seen some of the major landlords coming from foreign lands and dictating the pace of what they do and getting away with many different things. We still have to tackle many of those issues. In fairness to the Minister of State, Deputy English, and the senior Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, there are many positives in this Bill.

It is actually helping the tenant more and putting more responsibility on the landlord. There is a fear out there, and always has been, that if a tenant opened his or her mouth he or she could soon have his or her notice and then nowhere to stay. The RTB has a greater responsibility on it to do things to help tenants and anyone in trouble in different parts of the country. The other side of this that the Government did not address was raised at a launch I was at recently for iCare by Fr. Peter McVerry. He said there are 12,000 families in buy to let homes. There is a real danger there because there is a prediction that 12,000 of those houses are in arrears and may be in trouble in respect of being repossessed by the banks. That would see many more families added to the situation that pertains currently.

We have to look at seeing how solutions can be found to keeping tenants in situto make sure we do not end up dealing with a massive number of people and putting more pressure on the different bodies that look after people in homelessness and try to get them a bed. We have to keep a sharp eye on that this year. We know the banks are moving a bit faster. As I said, though, I will not hold this Bill up. There are many positives in it that have to be welcomed. It will be of some help. It is not going to solve the problem by any means but anything positive that is being done has to be acknowledged by all sides of the House.

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