Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Like everyone else, I commend Deputies Ó Laoghaire and Kenny for bringing this legislation forward. Everyone accepts that it is absolutely necessary. I also welcome that the Minister of State has said the Government will not be opposing it. He spoke about this as a sign of an ability or willingness to work across the House. Hopefully we will see that happen. Whether we pass this legislation or other Government legislation that deals with this issue and possibly some other matters, the timeline is what matters. This needs to be addressed as soon as possible, as a number of colleagues have already stated.

It has already been pointed out by many people that this is a very simple solution to one particular problem but we probably need a suite of solutions across the board. Many have spoken about the difficulties we have in this State with a huge housing crisis and people paying absolutely extortionate rents. We do not have sufficient affordable housing projects and there is no proper affordable housing project across this State. That that locks people out.

People do not have security of tenure. I welcome what Deputy Howlin said in that regard. He spoke about cases of really bad landlords who need to be dealt with. We probably also have cases of tenants who have not played their part. Threshold has said that what we need is a professionalisation of the entire sector. That would provide the protections needed by renters and also give protections to landlords. We are talking specifically about the landlords who are leaving the sector.

Unfortunately, they are being replaced with vulture funds. These are the sort of outfits that are not sufficiently regulated, for which there are not sufficient protections and which have bought up a large number of loans. We will need protections across the board in this regard.

This legislation is straightforward. We are talking about people who are involved in the execution or enforcement or both of court orders, including orders for repossessions, and they should fall under the remit of the Private Security Authority. It is absolutely ludicrous, in that we expect door staff and those doing security work in shops to be subject to this regulation but here there are people involved in what can be incredibly distressing situations for those who are being evicted. As was said, we require people who are skilled, who are the right fit and who have been through proper vetting to ensure they are the right people for doing this type of work.

We should have protections for those being evicted because, as was said and as everyone knows, there have been many examples of thuggery in such instances which is not acceptable in this day and age.

This is incredibly simple and needs to happen as soon as possible. However, we need to ensure we deal with the other underlying problems in the sector. That means protections for the ordinary person, although not necessarily the protections we have at present, which make it easy for vulture funds and for people who are quite happy to get a posse together, which sounds like something from a Wild West movie, to arrive at somebody’s house to carry out an eviction. As many people have noted, that still resonates with the Irish psyche. It is a tradition arising from the Famine, the Land War and a time when many Irish people were utterly powerless. We need to ensure we put the protections in place for those who find themselves in these situations. It is a simple request and the Government needs to move on it as soon as possible. I accept it has stated its willingness to work with everybody in the House and with all the stakeholders to ensure protections for people who find themselves in a distressing eviction-type situation. We need to ensure that those who work in these situations are properly regulated and that controls are in place in order that we do not have a repeat of some of the situations of which we are all aware and which were spoken about tonight. The Government needs to move as quickly as possible. We will be more than happy and willing to work with it.

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