Dáil debates

Wednesday, 8 May 2019

Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Report and Final Stages

 

7:00 pm

Photo of Tommy BroughanTommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 22:

In page 16, to delete lines 25 to 29.

I will speak to amendments Nos. 22, 23 and 24. Section 19 of the Bill is to provide for the amendment of section 93 of the 2004 Act. My amendment No. 22 proposes to delete section 19 of this Bill. Amendment No. 23 is to delete section 20 which is an amendment of section 109 of the 2004 Act. These amendments relate to the proposed introduction of fees for mediation. The introduction of fees for this service would totally negate the importance of mediation for dealing with residential disputes. Barriers should not be created in the resolution of disputes and the introduction of charges may also do that. The amendment to section 93 removed the restriction on charging fees for mediation. The only reasonable logic for this is that there is an intention to charge a fee for the mediation in the future. A mediation process should be a readily accessible beneficial service to tenants and landlords alike whose grievance may not require the time and attention of an adjudication process. The application of any fee for such process has the potential to encourage applicants to opt for adjudication as any failure in the mediation process will ultimately lead to an adjudication or a tribunal. We feel with the annual registration fee for each tenancy there should not be a financial requirement for the RTB to charge a fee for mediation or to make such a fee in the future. Free mediation is highlighted on the RTB website and it states: "The aim of mediation is to give landlords and tenants a shared understanding of the issue so they can work towards reaching a mutually satisfactory outcome and agreement."

Amendment No. 24 relates to the reporting of determination orders. I discussed this earlier with the Minister. We believe the reporting should be in an anonymised format. I would like the Minister to at least agree that, "The Board shall publish, in such manner as it thinks fit, in an anonymised format". Some of the problems with the rental sector and of course the wider housing crisis have been partly due to a dearth of information, misinformation or skewing of statistics and data. A reliable, transparent and accountable system for reporting on the rental market is vital for a functioning market. I read recently about market failure in different parts of the European economy.

The housing situation here represents a total failure of the market vis-à-visa very significant number of our citizens. The concern, which I am trying to reflect in my amendment but with which the Minister does not agree, is that the publication of details of a determination order could potentially be used to blacklist tenants who have exercised their rights as per the Residential Tenancies Act. There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that tenants are often afraid to report breakages or the need for repairs to their landlords for fear of seeming like a nuisance. There are also reports of tenants being fearful of being seen as trouble makers by merely asserting their rights as tenants, of having eviction notices served on them and having to find somewhere else to live, perhaps without a landlord's reference. While I welcome the mandatory reporting of determination orders, I tabled this amendment in order to protect tenants. I believe it is important that the data is presented in an anonymised format.

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