Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, I join my colleagues in passing my condolences to the family of Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh. He was born in Dingle in 1930. He was a man who was regarded as a hero of the country. I have family abroad who believe his voice is synonymous with home and all that is good about Ireland. I wish to pay my deepest respects on behalf of the people of Wexford, whom I represent, to his wife Helena and his family. Without a shadow of a doubt, he will be fondly remembered. He was often copied but never equalled. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

I also welcome Natasha O'Brien. I say that with great sadness. This is probably her first visit to Dáil Éireann. We can only commend her on being brave enough to come out on behalf of every victim of violence, not just women but all victims. I thank her.

I want to bring to the Taoiseach's attention today the story of John, who gave us his experience as a landlord on "Liveline" yesterday. Essentially, John's story is one of extreme unfairness. He and his family are the victims of a rogue tenant, to whom he rented his one and only rental property in January 2023. By November 2023 the tenant had stopped paying rent and refused the landlord any access to his own property. John started the process of ending the tenancy, as the tenant was not responding to any form of contact. There are six steps to be carried out, as depicted on the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, website, none of which the tenant engaged in. During the waiting period for a hearing date for the dispute resolution process, John discovered that not only did the tenant owe him up to €14,000 in rent arrears, but they were subletting his property on the Airbnb website in recent months. Airbnb refused to engage with John, as he was not the host customer. He is very aggrieved at this, as one can imagine that it is rubbing salt into the wound of a €14,000 debt.

John did everything by the book and was eventually at the stage where he could apply to the RTB for a hearing date, which took six months. When the rogue tenant turned up, they offered no mitigating factors. The bottom line is that John followed the entire legal process. He engaged a letting agent who was a small business owner, which as a landlord, he endorsed. He paid his tax. He did everything by the book. He put the lease through the RTB and he paid for that process. Yet the tenant, who offered no mitigation as to why they stopped paying rent, gained a profit from airing the same property on Airbnb, with – I am sure - no income tax paid to Revenue, and probably no follow-up by Revenue.

In this instance the RTB says that it takes 31 weeks for the average process to be undertaken. Having gone through the process and the determination that the eviction orders were all correct, it was then appealed even though no mitigating factors had been advanced by the tenant. That process ended seven weeks ago and no determination order has yet been received by the landlord. The tenant is still in situ. The landlord is told that when the determination order is received, the tenant will be given two weeks' notice to vacate the property. If the tenant does not vacate, John's only recourse will be to go to the courts to have the order enforced. What I am saying is that the RTB is dysfunctional and no longer fit for purpose. We have a property that should be available to renters. The landlord in his own testimony states that once he retrieves his property, he will sell it and no longer be a landlord. We are carrying a disservice through the form of an RTB that is absolutely not fit for purpose. It is not the first time this has been said in the House. Will the Taoiseach tell us what he is going to do about it?

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