Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am also speaking in favour of the amendments from Deputies Jan O'Sullivan and Broughan. The point I would make very simply to the Minister is that while this Bill improves the position of tenants in the private rented sector somewhat, there is an incredible disconnect between the ambition of the measures in the Bill and the horror of the housing and homelessness crisis and the extreme hardship, anxiety, suffering and despair being felt by families who are being pushed into homelessness from the private rented sector because their landlords say they are selling up the property or because of efforts by landlords to claim that they need to carry out substantial refurbishment and that people must leave for that reason.

There is no sense of emergency in this Bill or from the Government. There is no sense of the absolute necessity to stop pushing more families and, in particular, children into these intolerable and unacceptable situations. It is as if the Government's approach is that it will make small incremental changes that will slowly and slightly improve the balance for the tenant. What is necessary is an emergency response to an emergency situation. We have to stop the flow into homelessness. We are at a situation in most areas where there is not even enough room in the hubs. It is intolerable as it is that we have people and families in hubs, often for months and sometimes for years. It is a form of child abuse to have children in those circumstances. First, we have to get those people out of that situation. Second, we have to stop anyone else going into that situation. There is no sense of that emergency with the Bill. As a consequence, people will continue to flow into homelessness and this is simply going to continue. We will continue to facilitate a fly-by-night, profit-driven private rental sector.

I am keen to emphasise one point because I have met some people who have said that they are decent landlords but that people like me are always speaking out against the landlords. I know there are decent landlords. I know some are not putting up the rent as much as they could and I know there are people who do everything they can to avoid eviction. There are also, however, some really greedy unscrupulous people who would do anything, and this Bill does not deal with them. That is the problem. We need to stop them in their tracks from evicting people on the grounds of sale.

If people are in the business of being landlords, then they should understand that they have an obligation to tenants. That is it. People in the private rented sector should have a right to security over the long term for themselves and for their children. If landlords do not understand that or do not like it, then they should not be in the business of being landlords. It is as simple as that. It needs to be established clearly by Government that if a landlord goes into the business of renting out property in the private sector, then the landlord is in a serious business and has obligations to tenants. It must be clear that those people are human beings and their children are human beings. It must be clear that they have the right to have a secure future and the right not to have to face anxiety and fear if, all of a sudden, the landlord decides to sell and the tenant is then gone. Worse still, the tenant might only have 28 days to get alternative accommodation. This is when everyone knows there are queues out the door. As soon as people see advertisements on daft.ie, they race down to get the property but there are queues out the door. Bidding goes on to get in on properties that are vastly overpriced. This has to stop but there is no ambition or sense of urgency in this legislation.

At least these amendments try to close the loopholes and the situations in which landlords can evict people. They aim to give people a little more time to secure alternative accommodation, although, God knows, unless we provide affordable and public housing on scale and with urgency, none of this will make any difference at all. That is why I am repeating the call of Deputy Paul Murphy for people to support the Raise the Roof protests. The protests are supported by all the major housing NGOs and trade unions in this country as well as most of the Opposition political parties. The idea is to get people out on the street and put on enough pressure to make it irresistible for the Government to bring in the sort of radical measures to address the homelessness and housing emergency. Such measures are necessary to stem the tide of people into homelessness and emergency situations and, more important, to provide a long-term solution to the housing and homelessness crisis for all affected by it.

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