Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We were supposed to learn from the Covid crisis and we were all meant to be in this together. As I speak, I feel like we are being handed pieces of a jigsaw without an overall picture. We had a speech this morning from the Minister for Health on the fantastic vaccination programme that did not provide an overall picture. Now we are discussing a very specific legislative proposal but we have moved on from the lovely language of all being in it together.

I will start with the positives. The Bill before us is short, which is welcome. I welcome the section that extends the timeframe for protections for tenants, but I agree with the amendments that have been tabled to extend those protections to more people. I hope the Minister will see sense in that regard. He delivered a speech yesterday that used the same type of language we heard this morning, encouraging us to look to a brighter day. We do not need those types of speeches and we do not want to hear that type of thing. People will make up their own mind based on information. In regard to vaccinations, they want to know where the roll-out fits into an overall programme to deal with Covid. They want to know where the protections set out in this Bill fit in as part of a housing programme that will deal with the housing crisis that has been in existence for years directly as a result of Government policies.

The Minister is back here today because of the sunset clause. He knew that clause would run out and that he would have to come back to the House with new provisions. I welcome his extension of the protections. However, while one hand is extending protection to certain lucky tenants, the other hand is going to remove protection from another set of tenants. He told us so in the lovely patriarchal language of it being for our own good and that we must balance the rights of landlords and tenants. During the debate, antisocial behaviour was thrown into the mix. As a former councillor and Deputy, I am a person who will not tolerate antisocial behaviour. However, it is concerning that it was thrown into the mix by various Members in connection with the non-payment of rent. In fairness to the Minister, he did not do so.

I do not accept the justification for the lack of pre-legislative scrutiny of these provisions. There was ample time for discussion. In a different context, for example, a Minister of State wants an Oireachtas committee to sit almost every day to deal with the Bille na dTeangacha Oifigiúla (Leasú) 2019 because he is under pressure. There is no problem with extra meetings. I heard the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, say there was no problem with extra meetings in regard to the Bill we are discussing now, but those meetings were not facilitated. It is really shocking that the proposal not to waive pre-legislative scrutiny had to go to a vote in the committee. That proposal was won by seven votes to six but the pre-legislative process was waived anyway. I have no idea how the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, can stand over that type of scenario and say that we have a lively and healthy democracy. Pre-legislative scrutiny is absolutely essential when there is a proposal to remove protections from some tenants. He is shaking his head but that is what he is doing in section 2. He has been asked by Threshold and the Simon Communities of Ireland not to do so. They are much more expert on these issues than we are in this House. We, as elected representatives, send people all the time to Threshold because its staff know exactly what is happening in local areas.

To put the situation for renters in perspective, the Oireachtas Library and Research Service tells us that in the ten-year period from 2006 to 2016, the number of private renters doubled. That is a deliberate consequence of Government policies, which have facilitated the private market. I welcome the figure from the Minister that 70% of landlords own only one or two properties. I am on record as saying that there is a role for those types of landlords and that we need them. However, their rights must be balanced by a Government policy on housing that is fair and just. The State must be in the middle of the market in providing public housing on public land. From what I see in Galway city, it has gone beyond Dublin in terms of rent prices. In my own area, the rent on a two-bedroom house is €2,000 per month, which is beyond the ability to pay of most ordinary people earning a salary.

I appeal to the Minister to accept the amendments that are sensibly seeking an extension of time and to leave out section 2. I ask that he come back and work with us with a view to the Government putting forward a solution to the housing emergency that is a direct consequence, as Deputy Catherine Murphy said this morning, of dealing with homes as financial products.

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