Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ar an gcéad dul síos, ba mhaith liom comhghairdeas a ghabháil leis an Aire. I wish the Minister the very best. I know how hard he worked on the housing committee. He had some great ideas and I hope his officials will work with him and allow him to bring those ideas to fruition.

I wish there was a Utopia. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae alluded to the view of the left that all landlords are demons, evil and bad, they plucked a property, which fell from the sky, and they make maximum profits from it, pay no tax on it and mistreat their tenants. Nothing could be further from the truth. We need a healthy balance of people who are willing to invest, buy properties, put them out for rent and look after their tenants, and we need good tenants as well. There are thousands in both categories. It is very important to put that on the record. However, we need legislation and, therefore, I welcome the Bill. I supported the introduction of the freeze on evictions in March when the emergency period started. I am concerned, however, that the hassle and evictions did not stop for tenants of commercial properties. Neither did the court procedures or the vultures stop there, including the intimidation of people and eviction of families because they got in trouble with loans on their commercial properties. That has happened in Dublin city and elsewhere and it is a very regressive trend.

There will always be people who will abuse the good intentions and goodwill behind legislation, including this Bill. We have situations where landlords are tormented by tenants, who cause significant levels of anti-social behaviour, throw parties, deal in drugs, commit theft and torment and abuse their neighbours. We have seen examples of that. We have seen huge parties of young people. I am a supporter of young people. I have young people in my own family. Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí. There were instances in Cork where a solicitor and another neighbour had to go to court to stop the parties. That is not fair. The neighbours have been subjected to appalling treatment. The landlords try to deal with the issue by removing the tenant. The Garda have been involved and recommended eviction but the landlord's hands were tied and he could not do anything about it. Those situations are intolerable and we must address them as well in order that there is a balance and fair play. The tenants are giving two fingers to everybody and nothing can be done with them because of the moratorium and the so-called Covid pandemic.

I also know of cases where tenants have simply stopped paying rent and abused the current situation. I accept that is a minority, perhaps even a tiny minority, but a heinous one. Landlords must pay their debts, taxes and everything else. In some cases, tenants have continued to refuse to pay their rent and have refused to vacate the property. I refer to cases where tenants have suffered no loss of income due to the pandemic, but where people have suffered the loss of income, wages and everything else, they must be supported.

This Bill is probably weak in some ways. Like all the legislation we have had in the present climate, it is too rushed. We have not had pre-legislative scrutiny and we have not had proper time to debate it. Rushed legislation can often be bad legislation. I appeal to the Minister, who has plenty of common sense, to use it and to use his experience as well. It is very hard to create legislation that covers every aspect of every situation, but we need to protect and support decent tenants, and as I said, the vast majority of tenants are decent. We also need to protect and support good landlords because without them the housing crisis would be far worse. Over the past ten years the building programme from the State was non-existent, so without the landlords we would have had nothing. We need a balance of the two. I suppose two roads shall turn, whether right, left or whatever, but we need good, solid legislation that protects good tenants and supports landlords as well.

I wish the Minister well; I will work with him. However, the problem with this is we will go into recess on Thursday, and if anything crops up, we will have no opportunity to address it until the autumn, which is a long time to wait. The provisions on evictions and rogue landlords have been stuck in the mud since March and are now going to be stuck until December or early January. That is not good. I welcome this Bill. There are good aspects to it I want to support and there are bits of it I cannot. Overall it is an effort by the Minister to bring his stamp to his Department. It is rushed because of the situation we are in but I wish the Minister luck with it and want to support him. Legislation that is for the greater good, for the greater number of people, is what we want and we should always be moving forward in that vein.

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