Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is the fifth Bill that has been introduced by the Government since it took office last summer to safeguard tenants during the pandemic. The Bill extends the protections to tenants affected by Covid-19 by a further six months until 12 January 2022. The number of people that have directly invoked this legal protection has remained small so far, but the legislation has also had a chilling effect on all landlords and, as a result, has protected tenants. The Government will continue to protect vulnerable tenants for the extent of the pandemic and those financially impacted by Covid-19 who have been protected in each of the Bills. The Bill introduces a further extension of the protections for those negatively impacted by Covid-19. The Minister has been consistently proven correct on this issue. He has listened, acted and protected tenants, despite the suggestions of those in Opposition that he would do otherwise.

The Bill also introduces rental protections for students, not just those impacted by Covid-19. This is another issue on which the Minister has listened. The Bill introduces new rental protections that will restrict the total value of upfront payments for rent, which will apply to all tenancies. I met with representatives of the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, who were very passionate and are genuinely concerned about the rental market for students. We recently saw progress on the Residential Tenancies (Student Rents and Other Protections) (Covid-19) Bill 2021, which the Government supported. I thank the USI for its engagement with all parties on this issue. We see some of its suggestions in the Bill. For example, any upfront payment upon the commencement of a tenancy will be restricted to a total value that does not exceed two months' rent, that is, a deposit and one month's rent in advance. This Bill provides that a notice period to be given by students in respect of student-specific accommodation will be limited to a maximum of 28 days. These new protections for students will be in place for the new academic year. When it comes to student tenancies, students and their families, Fianna Fáil has listened, acted and protected. That is no surprise from a Minister who stood with students from the USI and other universities on protests such as the Shanowen Shakedown.

The Programme for Government, Our Shared Future, commits to improve the security of tenure for tenants, through legislating for tenancies of indefinite duration, increasing enforcement by the Residential Tenancies Board and examining incentives for long-term leasing. This is only the start. I look forward to the additional rental protections the Minister has said he will introduce later in the year to further protect tenants.

I wish to respond to the Opposition speakers who spoke this morning. There are two areas where they are either deliberately attempting to mislead or are not communicating correctly. One is the notion that the Minister could do more, while at the same time they advocate for a change in the Constitution, which would balance property rights with the right to housing. It is one or the other: either we need a referendum for good reason or we do not need it and the Minister should be doing what he can now. It is disingenuous to criticise the Minister for not having further extensions and, by the same token, saying we need a change in the Constitution. I agree with amending the Constitution to include a right to housing, but we cannot pretend that need is not there when we are criticising the Minister.

I heard a number of Deputies with their pre-prepared Facebook scripts pretending that the one Minister has been in place for ten years and that he has done nothing for the past ten months. Of course the rental crisis is dire; it is one of the principal issues all of us heard on the doorsteps at the last general election. Rents in Dublin and many other places are unaffordable. It is the reason many parties sough to form a Government to try to ensure we could do something about it. It is the reason the Minister has introduced five Bills on this issue, two further Bills on the Land Development Agency and the Affordable Housing Bill. It is the reason that for the first time in the history of the State we have an affordable rental scheme. To say the Minister has done nothing and stood over what happened in the past ten years is blatant hypocrisy. It is a direct attempt to mislead people who might only tune in on one Facebook account for one contribution. There is a deliberate attempt by Fianna Fáil, the Green Party and Fine Gael to tackle the housing crisis, to change direction, to put in place protections for tenants and new forms of tenancies, such as the affordable rental scheme, to increase supply, to end the housing crisis. I agree with the Opposition that we should keep raising the problems that exist because that is what will keep motivating us, but we must recognise that a policy change has been made, that we have a Minister who is implementing that policy and that the majority of Deputies in the Dáil support the Government and support those changes.

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