Dáil debates

Wednesday, 23 June 2021

Residential Tenancies (No. 2) Bill 2021: Second Stage

 

4:17 pm

Photo of Michael CollinsMichael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of this Bill is to extend the emergency period specified in the Planning and Development, and Residential Tenancies, Act 2020 until 12 January 2022. The aim is to further assist tenants who are being financially impacted by Covid-19, while recognising and balancing the rights of the landlord. Under the new regulations, which the Government plans to have passed into law by the summer, renters will only be required to supply a deposit and a month's rent in advance. The total value of that will not be allowed to exceed the value of two months' rent. The measures also apply to those who are living in student-specific accommodation.

I wish to spend some of my time speaking to the issue of students and the difficulties that they are having in getting accommodation and those they have experienced over the last number of months in paying rent for accommodation that they have not accessed, and the difficulties they have faced in trying to get back the moneys that they paid. It has been a nightmare for many students. Our offices deal with these issues on a regular basis. It is most unfair that so few safeguards are put in place for the students of this country. The deserve respect. They are trying to start out in their lives and are working really hard. In respect of trying to access a SUSI grant, if they are just 10 cent over the threshold with the small amount of earnings that they may have got from working over the summer, they are disqualified from getting a SUSI grant. The odds are stacked against the young people in this country in relation to student accommodation.

The overall lack of housing in this country is an absolute scandal. During the week, I heard the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar's promises on housing. He must have woken up on some side of the bed one morning and thought that the had dreamed that he could build 40,000 houses. He was long enough in government and he built nothing. I cannot understand how he can dream that up and try to sell that whole story to the public. Of course, RTÉ and the media give him lots of air time to talk about the nonsensical dreams he has, whereas other people who have realistic thoughts and views on people getting housing do not get the same air time.

That leads me onto the issue of the crisis that we face in relation to rural planning. I can assure the Minister of State that we are looking at the very same situation as we have seen today with the protest on fishing rights. There was a fine, peaceful protest, and thousands of fishermen from west Cork, Kerry, Donegal, Wexford and Galway came to Dublin to fight their case. The Government faces the same situation with rural planning. Young people genuinely want to work and live in their communities and do not want to be a burden on the State. They want to get a loan to get out there and build a happy home for themselves. They are being denied this opportunity. In west Cork, every planning application has been refused. That is a Green Party policy anyway. Its policy is to make sure that it ruins people's lives going forward. It is scandalous beyond belief that every planning application is met with an excuse or a hurdle. I would not mind if there was an architectural issue, because such issues can be addressed. If there was an issue in respect of a genuine entrance, changes could be made. However, it is all just scenic nonsense. There is a planning application in respect of a site that cannot be seen anywhere. An Bord Pleanála has decided that there is a scenic landscape issue with the application. We are dealing with an awful crisis in relation to planning in this country. It is going to lead to an outcry.

That is not to mention the sewerage issues that have not been dealt with in west Cork, such as in Castletownshend and Goleen. I have been mentioning these places forever. Looking at the county development plans, they are telling us that towns can grow. Towns are going nowhere. In rural towns and villages people living over the shop. There is no encouragement for grants to be awarded to people to turn around their lives and try to live in rural communities. Rural communities can offer so much to young people out there and to young couples who want to start off in their lives.

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