Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 6:

In page 7, lines 16 to 18, to delete all words from and including “means—” in line 16 down to and including line 18 and substitute the following:

“means a period that shall commence on the enactment of this Act and shall end on a resolution being passed in Dáil Éireann to that effect, the period shall be a minimum of 12 months in duration commencing on the enactment of this Act.”.

Amendments Nos. 6 and 7 effectively have the same purpose, which is that instead of the emergency period going on for a period of three months, it will go on for 12 months. What we are arguing is that the upward freeze on rents would not just be for three months but would be for 12 months, and the ban on evictions would not just be for three months but would be for 12 months. It is clear and we have argued in the past that this should be a permanent measure, and we have put forward an anti-evictions Bill to do precisely this. We have argued in favour of an upward rent freeze in the past. We are in favour of these things being permanent because it is what renters need in terms of having a break from the crisis that is currently going on and has been going on.

Even if it is not going to be permanent, we think there is a very strong argument to make it at least 12 months. From one point of view, the very severe restrictions which we agreed at last week's Dáil sitting go until November and go beyond three months. There is no reason significant powers are being given to the State for a period until November and, yet, a small bit of a break for renters exists only for three months. The reality is that we all know this emergency for renters is going to continue beyond three months. Even in a best case scenario, where things are relatively back to normal in three months in terms of people being able to return to work, an end to very widespread social distancing and so on, the economic crisis that flows from this is going to continue. There will be people without income for an extended period and these renters deserve a break. They deserve a break from the threat of eviction standing over them and they deserve a break from potential increases in rents. The Government should accept, at the very least, that if it is not willing to make these measures permanent, which I think it should, it should accept that they should exist for 12 months.

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