Results 2,281-2,300 of 15,555 for speaker:Eoghan Murphy

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: The debate is not being guillotined. I am absolutely at the disposal of the House and will be here until the early hours of morning to get through every issue in detail, if that is what Members. It is not a problem. On the timing, I do not want to be in this position with Members; as I said, I do not think it is fair on them. Senator Murnane O'Connor defends better and more eloquently...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: I believe the public floor is already there. A one-month deposit is the norm in the vast majority of cases. I am not saying we do not need to legislate for it. This brings us back to Senator Craughwell's point that there is a great deal to do around the deposit area. There is a lot we need to do to make sure tenants are not being unfairly treated from a financial perspective in a number...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank Senators for their contributions and the amendments tabled. The daft.iereport was mentioned. This type of information is helpful but we have to recognise that these are the renting prices being asked, not agreed. It is a much smaller data set than actual rents agreed and registered with the RTB. It produces its index quarterly on what the state of rent is in different parts of the...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: As the Senator is aware, I do not rule amendments out of order.

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: On section 9, obviously, people who are paying close attention to this, as all Senators present are, understand that the first designated rent pressure zones in Dublin and Cork were due to expire at the end of this year. Rather than waiting until the last minute to extend them, given the unforeseen delays which can occur in these Houses, as was discussed earlier, it is better to extend them...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: I listened to the Senator at those meetings. The points she made were correct and we are changing the qualifying criteria. The calculation used involved rent being above the national average - which included and still includes Dublin - and having above 7% rent inflation in four of the past six quarters. We recognised that it was very unlikely that more areas would come into a rent pressure...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: Unfortunately, I am only now reading the amendments that were ruled out of order. I do not have a say in the ruling in or out.

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: For the first time. On the amendment, there might be some confusion and I will try to clarify it. Recognising the boundary change in Cork and the other legislation that came through this House extending the boundary of the city, that takes into account areas that were already RPZs. No area is going to lose its designation as an RPZ as a result of the boundary change. I have to read the...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: Off the top of my head, I am not. I will have to look into that. When rent caps were brought in, people said it would create a two-tier rental sector. Some people’s rent would be controlled and people just outside the rent control area would be under pressure in respect of rent increases. One of the issues Senator Murnane O'Connor raised was that some people felt they were being...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: I appreciate that. The system by which an area is designated an RPZ is based on the most recent data we get on a quarterly basis from the RTB, which then consults with the Housing Agency and a recommendation for a new area is given to me to sign off on. Two areas were included in the final quarterly report of 2018. There is no flexibility on my part. In the legislation we are taking due...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank the Senators for tabling the amendments. Before we had a crisis in homelessness, before we had families in the numbers that they are in emergency accommodation, we had a problem, as Senator Humphreys referred to, with families not having the kind of tenancy security they needed to be able to live in an area as a renter and raise a family and have their kids in school. That had to be...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank the Senators for their contributions. I will address Senator Warfield's concerns first. The different amendments are all related in many ways. On the data issue, the NGOs say that landlords selling properties is the main reason people end up in emergency accommodation. The Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, says that it is actually rent arrears, that is, people not paying rent. Let...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: On the second question, there are changes in the Bill which mean that where a notice to quit is served on a tenant, the landlord must furnish that notice to the RTB within 28 days of the notice to quit period expiring. That allows the RTB, which is being given new powers, to follow up and inspect whether it was served for the reasons that it purportedly had been served. If it was not, there...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: We are creating at least 300 new HAP tenancies a week, which is staggering. Despite the crisis we have, 300 households are being supported each week under HAP for the first time. That is important. While recognising that, it can be difficult to secure HAP properties in certain areas for individuals. We rolled out place finders and made them available to every local authority, although not...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: I understand the motivation behind the amendment. We want people to continue to use the free mediation services of the RTB which has no intention of charging for them at any time in the near future. However, it is prudent to include this provision in the legislation in case it becomes necessary to use it at some point in the future, but no one is planning on invoking or using it following...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: No one is talking about introducing a fee overnight. The RTB offers free mediation services and we want them to continue. This is about the change management programme that is under way within the RTB to move it from being a board to a regulator and providing for all of the aspects that might be need to be addressed at some point in the future without the need to have to come back to the...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: To be clear, any change in this area would not be made without the RTB first coming to me and the Houses to discuss it. It is not even on its horizon to charge for the service. I am looking ahead to a landscape on which there will more larger landlords and when there may be a case to advise a group of tenants involved in a dispute with a large landlord to go through the RTB mediation...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: All I can say to allay the Senator's concern is that if this is to happen, it must have the consent of the Minister, regardless of who the Minister is. The Minister of the day will always be accountable to both Houses of the Oireachtas. I cannot know what the outcome of the next general election will be. If I were betting, I would bet that it will be another minority Government. When we...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: I will respond for a final time on this section. I am not asking anyone to "take a punt". The RTB is not looking to do this. We are trying to manage a change management programme for the RTB to make it a robust regulator for landlords and tenants alike. We are trying to build a new rental sector that is more mature and more European. I have looked at every aspect of everything that may...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank the Senator for her contribution. I understand the reasons behind the amendment. It was gone through previously on Committee Stage when the Bill was progressing through the Dáil. On her first point, local authorities are building more houses than housing bodies. I do not wish to delay the House. Essentially, the provision of social housing was reduced almost exclusively to...