Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 31:

In page 130, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following: “Report on incentives for landlords to retain tenants

74. The Minister shall, within 3 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before the Oireachtas a report on the possibility of implementing tax measures to offer incentives for landlords to retain tenants through the sale of residential property.”.

This is an issue Focus Ireland asked me to raise. It relates to landlords seeking to end tenancies in order to sell properties. We discussed this during the budget process last year and the Minister examined a number of options but concluded they were not workable at the time. Focus Ireland in its pre-budget submission called for a fund to take into ownership buy-to-let units that are being repossessed due to landlord arrears and where the tenant is in receipt of the housing assistance payment, HAP, and is at risk of homelessness. It sought to link this fund to reform of the tax treatment of such transfers to create an incentive for landlords to sell without evicting tenants. There is nothing to be done on the issue in this Finance Bill, but it warrants examination. Perhaps the Minister will ask the tax strategy group to examine this issue to see if anything can be done in the tax code to deter the ending of tenancies, effectively, the eviction of tenants, in order to sell the property.

See this speech in context