Dáil debates

Wednesday, 22 September 2021

Residential Tenancies (Tenants' Rights) Bill 2021: Second Stage [Private Members]

 

10:50 am

Photo of Johnny MythenJohnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Bacik and her colleagues for bringing forward this Bill and for the opportunity to discuss its provisions and the scandal of the rental crisis in our country. With the Covid-19 restrictions on evictions lifted and protection measures gone, we are seeing major fallout. People come to my constituency office in County Wexford every week who are facing desolation and homelessness because of higher rents and the complete lack of social and affordable housing. Young, hard-working families are paying through the nose for rents. The cost of living has increased and inflation is heading in the highest direction for years. With the addition of the highest childcare costs in Europe, there is a complete no-hope scenario for rent security or ever having the aspiration of owning a home. Due to the massive shift to working from home, more people are moving away from big urban areas in order to rent or buy in places such as County Wexford. This drive in demand will see a corresponding increase in prices.

The rental crisis must be tackled head-on. We welcome this Bill, which would increase rent security and remove unfair restrictions. The Government's failure to get a handle on the situation means that thousands of young people are financially trapped in a property fishbowl, with no way out. The latest Daft report for the second quarter of this year showed County Wexford with an astonishing 13% year-on-year average rental price increase. This is affecting young people too. Students who cannot rely on good quality transport in the county are forced to attempt to enter the Dublin rental market to go to college. Many families simply cannot afford it, and it is causing untold stress.

As my colleagues stated, we will support the Bill. However, Sinn Féin would also like to see a ban on rent increases for three years, as provided for in two Bills we introduced during the final Dáil term of 2020 and in July 2021. This is different from a rent freeze as it allows for rents to decrease as well. We would also go further in terms of the grounds for evictions. While we support the removal of the sale of property as a ground for eviction, and we introduced the family homelessness Bill to deal with this during the last Dáil term, we would go further and remove the use of the family member ground entirely. This generation of hard-working families and young people deserve a fighting chance, which consecutive Governments have denied to them. I commend the Labour Party on bringing this Bill forward. I hope it will help to address some of the issues.

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