Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has done it again. He is tabling legislation that promises to protect renters. What he gives with one hand, he takes away with the other. The Bill extends protections to a small group of renters for a very short period of time. Crucially, it removes protections from a much larger group of renters with immediate effect. This would be unacceptable in normal times, but it is totally unacceptable in the difficult and dangerous times we find ourselves living in now.

Section 1 of the Bill extends from April to July the ban on rent increases and evictions of tenants in arrears due to Covid-19 income loss and in receipt of a Covid-19-related payment. Section 2, as the Minister outlined - my language would be a little more direct - strips all other tenants in rent arrears of the protection against eviction linked to the 5 km travel restriction. Before I outline the problems with these two sections, I want to express in the strongest possible terms the dissatisfaction of many in the Opposition with how the Minister has handled the tabling of this legislation.

Last week, the Minister requested that members of the housing committee waive pre-legislative scrutiny. The committee met with officials from his Department on Monday last for a briefing in advance of making its decision. We were not given a copy of the legislation. Following some protestation from some members at the briefing, we were shown screen shots of the legislation on Microsoft Teams. There was no adequate explanation as to the reason this legislation was not brought forward sooner. We have all known for some time that these deadlines were approaching. There was no explanation as to the reason protections for tenants in arrears due to Covid-19 income loss were being only extended for three months and no justification provided for stripping all other tenants in arrears of the protection against eviction.

While Government Deputies and Senators were happy to accede to the Minister's request - they were remarkably silent on section 2 - the Opposition in committee were united that this was not an acceptable way to proceed. We proposed a compromise that the committee would waive pre-legislative scrutiny for the Bill in respect of section 1 if the Minister would remove the controversial section 2 but, unfortunately, Deputies and Senators from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party refused to support us. Other Opposition Deputies helpfully proposed an emergency session during last week to deal with pre-legislative scrutiny, but that was also rebuffed. While I am sure Government Deputies will justify their decision on the same grounds as the Minister has done today, namely, the need to extend the limited protections of section 1, they will also have to explain to their constituents who are renters in arrears why they are being stripped of vital protections through the provisions of section 2.

Ultimately, the Minister got his way. There was an equally split Government-Opposition vote in committee in public session last Tuesday. The Minister, having got his way with the support of Deputies and Senators from Government in committee, is also trying to steamroll the Bill through the House. Once again, we are dealing in the Dáil with important legislation with limited time, particularly for Committee Stage debate and votes, with all Stages to be taken in the Seanad on Saturday. This is not an acceptable way to deal with significant changes to complex legislation such as the Planning and Development, and Residential Tenancies, Act 2020. Unfortunately, this is increasingly the way in which the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy O'Brien, does his business. This is not the first time, nor the only time, when dealing with Covid legislation that the committee and the Dáil have not been treated properly, in my view.

With respect to the Bill, I will now deal with the two fundamental problems. With respect to section 1, extending the protections for tenants in arrears due to Covid-19 income loss and in receipt of a Covid-19-related payment is a good thing, but it makes no sense to extend those protections for only three months. Many of the people who are availing of that protection will likely not be back in employment until the end of the year, if not next year, and, therefore, they will need those protections for much longer. What the Minister also did not say was that according to the Residential Tenancies Board data, which it sent to me last week, only 407 tenants have availed of this protection since it was introduced last August and that is out of more than 200,000 tenants in the private rental sector who are not availing of the housing assistance payment, HAP, or the rental assistance scheme, RAS, and 300,000 tenancies across the private rental sector. This Bill protects only a tiny group of tenants. At the same time, section 2 removes protections for renters in arrears, many through no fault of their own. The number then affected is likely to be much greater.

Who are we talking about here? We could, for example, have tenants who have not lost income because of Covid-19 and are not on a Covid-19-related payment but were hit with unreasonable rent increases in 2019 and 2020 by their landlords, rent increases which may be in line with the RPZ in the areas covered or higher than 4% outside of those areas, and are now falling into arrears. The difficulty is that allowing a landlord to issue a notice to quit and pursue an eviction where such tenants cannot pay rent puts those tenants and their children at increased risk from infection with Covid-19 because they will have to start viewing properties and, therefore, will be moving about more than is required. If they cannot find rental properties - we know this is an increasing problem - they could be forced into emergency accommodation, congregated settings, again putting them at even greater risk of Covid-19. Therefore, the protections should not just be for those who are economically impacted but also for those who, as a consequence of losing their tenancy, could be at increased risk of infection in either of the situations I have outlined.

This is not just my view or that of many Members of the Opposition. Threshold wrote to the housing committee this week to say that section 2 of the Bill will lead to "private renters [being] evicted even when the moratorium is in place". The letter from Threshold went on to say that this provision is "unnecessary and will cause considerable confusion and distress to a significant cohort of private renters". The Simon Communities of Ireland, members of which work at the front line of our homelessness crisis, has stated in correspondence to Deputies: "Such a blanket removal of protections from a vulnerable group at a time of crisis is unnecessarily punitive." Both organisations have called for the withdrawal of the controversial section 2 and better measures to deal with rent arrears.

I want to be very clear on a particular point. None of us in the Opposition is saying that if somebody has the means to pay his or rent and is wilfully refusing to do so, that he or should have any protections. Of course people in that situation should not have such protections. We are talking about groups of tenants who have fallen into rent arrears for reasons other than Covid-19 income loss and who continue to need protection. If this Bill passes, they will lose protection and will be at risk of losing their tenancy and becoming homeless. That is not something I can support.

Threshold and the Simon Communities of Ireland are right that section 2 of the Bill is punitive, unnecessary and will lead to the loss of accommodation and to homelessness. The section must be removed and I urge all Deputies to support the Opposition amendments proposing that removal. Equally, section 1 is not strong enough. Struggling renters need more than a few months to get back on track and I urge Deputies to support our amendments in that regard. There is something very Orwellian in a Minister coming into the House and claiming that a Bill will protect renters when not only the Opposition but leading advocacy organisations for tenants and front-line homeless services say it does the very opposite. Of course, Fianna Fáil could never be trusted to stand up for renters and this Bill from the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, proves once again that this is the case.

In the time remaining to me, I want to comment on the wider issues in the rental market that are relevant to this Bill, some of which are in the news today. The Residential Tenancies Board's latest rent index shows that rents continue to rise despite the pandemic, with a State-wide increase of 2.7% and a 2% rise in Dublin. The commuter belt has seen an astonishing 5% increase in rents. Nine counties show rent increases above 4%, including 8% in Carlow, 10% in Longford and 11% in Leitrim. No matter what the level of increase, tenants simply cannot afford any rise at all. This has to stop. All the while, the disorderly exit of tenancies from the private rental market continues, with 20,000 lost since 2017.

I see no evidence from this Government that it has a plan to deal with any of this. We need greater security of tenure, greater affordability, a ban on rent increases and a comprehensive plan to secure the stability and sustainability of the rental sector for landlords and tenants alike. I urge the Minister, in drawing up his forthcoming housing plan, to engage with the Opposition on ideas about how to do this. Otherwise, he will continue the same failed policies of his predecessors in respect of the private rental sector that have led to a dysfunctional market which is putting increasing numbers of tenants at risk of losing their homes or having to pay ever increasing rents.

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