Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to speak on this legislation. I wish the Minister well in his office. I worked with him long ago when I was in the same esteemed outfit as he is, but I took a different path since then, thankfully, and I thank the electorate for supporting me. I also worked with the Minister, when he was a Deputy, on the housing committee in the previous Dáil, and he was energetic, enthusiastic and had some great ideas.

I used to be a member of the Irish Council for Social Housing, ICSH, and I still have a connection with that body. The CEO, Mr. Donal McManus, and other people there, are impressed with the Minister's attitude and his approach towards getting the work done, which is a slogan I use myself. I refer to regular early morning meetings and regular updates. We have had too much lethargy and talk and too little action in recent years. We had promises of delivery of housing, but we were not getting them because there were blockages.

Turning to the legislation, I welcome it but I am disappointed with it. This morning, we were discussing what I called tyrannical powers being given to the Government in respect of the lockdown until June 2021. I do not know why this Bill does not have the same timeline. If we are going to have those kinds of draconian powers, and we are expecting the worst, until next year, surely we can expect the same to apply to renters.

Renters need security of tenure. I am not going to demonise all landlords because there are some very good examples and some very bad ones. Many in the middle do their best and are accidental or unintentional landlords who may have been left a house or acquired a property somewhere or other that they never expected to have. They have great people and the relationship between the tenants and the landlords is very good. There are also some occasions when the tenants are wrong. They just blackguard and damage the property, do not appreciate it and the landlords cannot do anything. The Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, often does not support them either. That is unfair.

Landlords are leaving the market. Two weeks ago, I left the convention centre and went down to a chemist in this lovely plush part of Dublin with all the new buildings. When I came out, a man in a van recognised me. He told me he was a landlord in the centre of Dublin, and had been for 40 years. He had 160 properties. This was an ordinary man, in his van, fixing a toilet or some similar plumbing problem in one of his houses. He explained to me that he was getting out of the business because there was too much hassle and landlords were being demonised and not being respected. That man is providing 160 units. I refer to an ordinary gentleman driving an ordinary van, something similar to what I drive in my constituency. He is a workman and a businessman who had a good relationship with the majority of his tenants. He was tired of the pressures and the demonisation and blackguarding. He had a great deal to say about certain parties on the left which are constantly attacking landlords.

If we drive them all away, where do we go? We saw what happened with the bedsits in Dublin when they were all closed down some years ago. That was a stupid decision. Those bedsits were not ideal but they were much better than sleeping in a box or on the streets. More than 8,000 families have been declared homeless. Fr. Peter McVerry and similar people are doing their best and those voluntary groups must be supported. I am delighted that the Minister is supporting them.

Evictions should not be going on now because people have been discommoded. Ordinary families who were working and paying their rent and who were happy to pay it and raise their families have been put out of work. They may be getting the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, but there is no certainty with that. There is great worry and fear. We must, therefore, ensure that this legislation carries on in tandem with the legislation we debated this morning, which we are voting on later, and the Health (Amendment) Bill 2020, which we will debate tomorrow. Why is the legislation we are debating now only for level 5? People were at risk of evictions in levels 3 and 4 as well.

The Minister will know very well one gentleman to whom I have been talking. He is also a former member of the Minister's party. He was dragged through the courts during the pandemic, day after day. We were told the courts were not doing that and that they were only hearing emergency cases. That man, however, was dragged through the courts by vulture funds. He lost rental properties and families were unmercifully evicted out onto the street in the middle of the first lockdown during an early morning raid. Six families were made homeless there and then. That type of thing was not meant to be happening. Why are we so blinded? Why has this Government and the previous one had blindfolds on? We are making it easy for the banks and the vulture funds.

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