Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)

With the greatest of respect, security of tenure is no use if you simply cannot afford the rent. The family homelessness crisis started in 2014, not because landlords were selling but because landlords were hitting tenants with double digit rent increases. Over the space of three to four years, the number of children in homelessness went from 800 to over 3,000. As for the so-called security of tenure measures, the Minister is going to create three different types of security of tenure; for existing tenants in existing tenancies, for new tenancies in existing properties of small landlords and new tenancies in properties of large landlords. That is a level of complexity that will be impossible to understand and virtually impossible to enforce. The only reason he has done this is to try to hide behind that while he guts the rent pressure zones and forces renters to pay levels of rent that are simply unacceptable. The Minister has no idea if notices of termination will increase or decrease. Neither he nor his Department have done any analysis on the impact on rents or security of tenure. Landlords are unhappy. Tenants are unhappy. This will not work and who is going to pay the price? Renters. Because Fianna Fáil does not give a damn about them.

See this speech in context