Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate. I wish the new Minister well in his role. No doubt there will be many challenges to overcome.

The Bill provides for increased notice periods for notice of termination served on tenants in rent arrears in the residential rental sector during the emergency period and up to 10 January 2021. It is an acknowledgement by the Government that many thousands of people, including families, will have been going through an extremely stressful time as the original end point for reviewing the existing moratorium approached.

However, everyone is not confident the Bill goes far enough. All of us here have received emails from the Simon Community outlining its concerns that the provisions of the Bill are complex and that more vulnerable tenants will require support to navigate the new provisions. One step that could be taken, according to Simon, is the inclusion of a duty on a landlord serving a notice to quit based on arrears, to include in the notice the list of services such as rent supplement, HAP, MABS and the RTB, which may be available to the tenant in the case of difficulty.

Such a notice should also include information on the right of tenants to make a declaration to the RTB under section 4(1) that they are a relevant person unable to pay rent. These seem to be small but they are significant steps that can be taken to ensure the protection of the law is extended to the most vulnerable, who need it most.

There is something profoundly concerning about the rationale behind this and similar Bills. On the one hand, we accept that during a public health crisis people should be supported to remain in their accommodation, but the Government and others are saying out of the other side of their mouth that as soon as this crisis has passed, we can get back to a situation whereby the scales of power are once more disproportionately stacked against the tenant. That is not tolerable or fair.

This is more of a legal than a political problem that we will need to address in the longer term, probably through a constitutional amendment. In the meantime, other measures can be taken outside of the kind of emergency powers we are debating. In my constituency of Laois-Offaly, for example, I have been calling for an extension of the RPZs. In April, I welcomed the long-overdue designation of Tullamore as a rent pressure zone. This followed the nationwide rent freeze that came into effect under the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act in March. The designation of Tullamore as an RPZ did provide some support and financial certainty to tenants but only in the medium term. What is needed in Tullamore, as in every other town in the country, is social and affordable housing schemes for people who are unable to access mortgages.

The designation of Tullamore as an RPZ was badly needed because at that time the figures from the RTB's rent index showed an increase of almost 10% in Laois and an increase of almost 6% in Offaly in the period from 2018 to 2019. This meant that many of my constituents in Tullamore and Edenderry were paying €1,000 in rent every month before the current crisis. That was unsustainable for many families and young couples and it was leading to people being forced into homelessness. Today, I ask the Minister to consider including Edenderry, another large town in north Offaly, in a revised list of RPZs. Could he also indicate when the list is likely to be drawn up?

We need to put in place a regulatory regime that is genuinely capable of responding to the rent and arrears pressures that tenants face without the threat of homelessness or eviction hanging over them.

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