Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputies have covered a lot of details in discussing these amendments. We are dealing with the reality of the situation and putting practical measures in place. The Bill represents the second very significant addition to tenancy protections that the Government has introduced since late July. I welcome the conversion that some on the far left and Sinn Féin have come to by supporting this legislation.

I genuinely do welcome it, but I repeat, the measures we brought in in July, effective from 1 August, the Residential Tenancies and Valuation Act 2020, have worked. There were Members on that side, and Deputy Buckley did it again tonight as did many others, who were predicting a tsunami of evictions. We will not be complacent, but that has not happened.

On the homeless numbers, particularly with families, we have seen continued reduction and I hope to see further reduction next week. That is down to good policy and the hard work that has been done by people within this sector, including our local authority staff, the staff in the Department and all the housing and homeless NGOs I work with on a near daily basis. This is why it was important in the budget passed by the Government just a few short days ago that we have the largest ever financial budget for housing to deliver €3.3 billion, with a total of more than €5 billion, for my Department. We will deliver 12,750 homes next year, with 9,500 of built public homes on public lands. We are committed to doing that. We will bring back 2,500 vacant stock voids into use in six months, allocated and occupied. These are real homes for real people.

While we are doing that we have to further protect and strengthen our tenants. This is why in the budget, which Members opposite voted against, we had to make provision for additional moneys for HAP tenancies. This was to save people going into homelessness. We are supporting more than 58,000 HAP tenancies. I would rather have 58,000 extra homes but, unlike some of the speakers opposite who think they can magic up 20,000 homes in a year, that is not doable. We have got to be realistic about it. We need short-term supports. That is what we are doing and what we will continue to do.

I remind people of what actually happened between March and July. It is important to put it on the record again when we are talking about what people had predicted earlier this year. From 29 March to the end of July, of 303,000 registered tenancies, only 42 notices of termination were issued. That was 42 landlords who disregarded those protections. That is a compliance rate of 99.98%. I say to Deputy Gould earnestly with regard to his constituent, that by passing the legislation this evening it stops the clock on his constituent's eviction notice. This is why we brought this in as emergency legislation. We have hardwired it into the public health advice and the public health Acts, right back to the Health Act 1947, so that if we ever have to move back into additional travel restrictions these measures will come back into place. They are focused and targeted measures and that is what we need to do.

I welcome the support from Deputies this evening on the rental protection measures for tenants by Sinn Féin. I welcome that, and the support of other Members who have decided now that it is the right time to support tenants. This is the second piece of significant legislation the Government has brought forward to protect tenants. I have not seen any legislation on that from the other side of the House. On the issue of a rent freeze, there is nothing about that in the Bill. The eight line Bill brought by Deputy Ó Broin was about a rent freeze but nothing about evictions, so let us be straight on that.

While welcoming the support I cannot accept amendments Nos. 4, 5 or 13. The legislation states "In this section, “relevant regulations” means regulations made under section 31A of the Health Act 1947 which operate, subject to conditions contained in the regulations, to impose restrictions on travel in an area or region to which an affected areas order applies." It is when section 31A of the health regulations restrict the movement of people outside of 5 km of their place of residence, that the prohibition on tenancy termination comes into play under this Bill.

As I have already said, the Bill is underpinned by prevailing public health advice and the collective will of the Government behind section 31A of the health regulations. Any future restrictions on the number or type of persons who can enter a dwelling in order to limit the spread of Covid-19 will be a matter for the Minister for Health in the first instance. The Bill is framed in the here and now. The public health advice is to restrict movement outside of a 5 km radius of a person's place of residence. I cannot pre-empt, nor can any of us, future decisions of Government or the Minister for Health. I know that such decisions will be based on public health advice and the best public health advice prevailing at that time. I know that Government decisions are taken, and I am included in them, in the best interests of all.

I informed the House in July, when we debated the Residential Tenancies and Valuation Act 2020, that if I needed to make further changes to residential tenancy law, and I also said it here and gave that commitment, to suppress the spread of the virus and to protect our tenants, that I would come back to the House and I would bring in more protections. That is what this Government and I are doing here this evening. I have not delayed. I am here now and I am following up on the prevailing public health advice. I hope that this six week restriction is the last restriction we need to face. If it is not, these measures and protections will come back into force. This is a legally sound, robust and strong piece of tenancy protection that will have effect, like the legislation we brought in in July, effective from 1 August this year. It will work and it is working. We need to do more to assist people in that space. This is why the Government has given more money and increased substantially the funding to the Residential Tenancies Board to allow it carry out its job, and to insist tenancy advocacy services such as Threshold are supported in the work they have to do.

This Government is supporting and does support renters. We are strengthening the protections in place for them. We will prosecute the, thankfully very few, rogue landlords who decided that these regulations do not apply to them. There are more than 200 ongoing investigations right now over incorrect notices to quit being issued.

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