John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am always interested in what Deputy Nash has to say. His contributions are always reflective and he is practical, reasonable and objective. Even he will recognise that his party leader, who is a former Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, took a couple of steps regarding the size and scale of apartments that had a pretty devastating impact on property development in Dublin and the living conditions of people who ended up renting those apartments. It is not something to be proud of and is not a positive legacy.

I have a lot of respect for Deputy Ó Broin. We share some ideas, but I do not necessarily imbue him the same kind of messianic talents as some in the media. I was very taken this week with the fact that he was invited to contribute on Sinn Féin's position on the mica redress issue. He said at the time that he would contribute comprehensively to it. He was invited by the Minister to do so and he did not. I wonder how he explains himself to his colleague in County Donegal, Deputy Mac Lochlainn, in that regard? What kind of conversation have they had on that issue? That must have been very interesting.

In my experience of 22 years in politics, I have never seen a Minister as open as Deputy O'Brien to inviting spokespeople from all parties and none to contribute to policy development on housing. He has been Minister for 14 months. When we look back at the raft of changes and the history of this period in the context of housing is spoken about, we will see that it represented not the destination of where we wanted housing policy to be, but certainly an advanced part of the journey to where housing policy was going. I represent a constituency that is quite varied in terms of income brackets, socio-economic class, to use that cliché, and the challenges that face people. People in my constituency would look enviously at rental costs of €1,300 a month that previous Deputies mentioned. The rent for a three-bedroom house in my constituency can be up to €2,500 and we are not necessarily talking about the leafy suburbs.

When we look back on this period, and this is not to suggest that there is not much more left to do because there is, we will see the introduction of a cost-rental model for the first time in the history of the State. Today, we see the first steps being taken to freeze rents and cap rent increases on rental properties. We see, in particular, unlimited duration tenancies, which never existed before. Please acknowledge that significant steps are being taken and that in 14 months, this Minister has made dramatic changes and has shown he can deal with an evolving situation. I agree that there is a crisis, there is much more to do on this - I have talked to him privately and the Minister knows this - and many more measures will need to be taken.

I was taken by what Deputy Nash said. I agreed with much of it, as a constituency politician, and with what was said by previous speakers on this side of the House, on the precarious nature of living in rented accommodation and the uprooting of families when a landlord decides that he or she wants to sell a house. This might involve a family that has set down its roots, whose children have set roots down in schools, colleges and local employment and, suddenly and without warning, that is threatened. I am dealing with a family at present that has had to make such a move on four occasions in their lives.

We need to get on top of the condition of some rental properties once and for all. I ask colleagues to appreciate that I am restricted in time so what I am about to say will sound like a pro-landlord piece; it is not. I ask them to take this in the context that I accept all the support for this Bill and the support for tenants that needs to be provided. More supports need to be in place but I have come across, as have all of us in this Chamber, tenants who have treated properties appallingly.

They are in a very small minority, but we do need to make provision for landlords in those situations. If a landlord can demonstrate that a tenant has abused a property or is damaging the property or leaving it in nowhere near the state in which the renter took it on, the landlord or the RTB need powers to impose in that regard. I say that just as an aside.

I welcome the start of this conversation. It is part of an evolution in housing policy in Ireland. There are destinations in housing policy articulated by members of the Opposition that I want to get to equally, that would see enhanced tenants' rights, security of tenure, on which first steps are being taken today, and rent predictability, that would allow people, while not necessarily owning their home or being tenants of a social home for life, to get to a point at which they could consider a private house, their home for life, without fear of eviction but with the ability to live comfortably and in security and the power to raise their family rather than having to uproot them every number of years.

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