Results 11,701-11,720 of 15,009 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: This was one of the sections of the Bill as originally presented. I was torn on the amendment. I am very sympathetic to the approved housing bodies, which have communicated with all members regarding the financial and administrative impact on them. However, I have listened very carefully to the Residential Tenancies Board regarding the need for accurate annual information such that we can...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: I thank Deputy Martin for tabling these amendments, which we will be happy to support. The Deputy is right, in that landlords are using this mechanism to circumvent the anti-discriminatory legislation. Previously, landlords would have refused rent supplement, HAP, etc. It is a clear ruse to avoid social welfare-dependent tenants for prejudicial or other reasons. There is nothing that...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: I support Deputy Darragh O'Brien's amendment. I understand fully the complexities of the creation of this scheme but it would assist the RTB greatly in reducing that bit of its dispute backlog. It would also generate revenue. The interest would be a considerable sum if the RTB were to be the holder of all of these deposits in its account. There would, therefore, also be a financial return...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: That is a very positive response to the amendments of Deputies Catherine Martin and Darragh O'Brien. While the Minister is right that there was probably some inaccurate reporting around key money, it is important to make a distinction between that and the very common practice of some landlords looking for multiple months' rent in advance. All of us have significant experience of that....

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: I refer to the change from three months to nine months. Is that based on evidence that landlords were genuinely engaged in the sale of the property but who, because the property sale was taking more than three months, fell foul of the existing legislation? I am interested to know the origin of it. Are the two subsequent changes lengthening the period of time from six months to 12 months...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: Is it a benefit to the tenant in the first instance?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: Perfect.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will speak to both amendments. We have discussed both at length and I am not looking to open up the debate but just to make the case briefly. The issue of vacant possession notice to quit is significant and everybody knows why. Amendment No. 50 seeks to remove sale of property as a ground for issuing a termination notice. At some point we have to move to a rental market where properties...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: I have not seen the legal opinion so I cannot comment on that. Given that the restriction applies to commercial rentals, it has to be legally possible, whether retrospectively or not, to apply the same rule to new tenancies. On the issue of the impact, it is not that I do not care about the impact on the property owner but, to use a phrase that the Minister and his predecessor always like...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: Our original intention was to break at 1 p.m. Is that still the case?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: I scheduled a meeting for 1 p.m. on the basis that we agreed to a break at 1 p.m. earlier.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: I do not wish to delay proceedings.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: I am not going to waste the committee's time because we had this discussion previously. These amendments provide for the removal of the proposed remedial notice proposition because it is not necessary. I am not convinced that an argument has been made as to why the change in the original legislation is there and, therefore, I propose to delete that section.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: I welcome the fact that the Government is extending the notice periods. In fact, while Deputy Boyd Barrett's amendment extends some of the notice periods, some of those extensions are not as advantageous as the Government's. The real issue is for people who are tenants for less than six months because a 28-day notice period is not enough, particularly given the market we are in. The one...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: I move amendment No. 16: In page 6, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following: “(b) in subsection (5) by the deletion of paragraph (a).”. This amendment is straightforward. It seeks to remove the exemption originally introduced in respect of new dwellings in the RPZ legislation, new properties on the market and so forth. The Minister has a similar amendment and,...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: I think I understand it, but the Minister read the note very quickly. In terms of the implication of the Minister's amendment for the rent review, obviously there is no rent review in the first setting of the rent so the mechanism for setting the rent is the market rent as per the RTB index for that type of property in that area. The rent reviews, as per the rent pressure zones, would apply...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: On that basis, I am happy to withdraw amendment No. 16.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: Many of us argued for this in amendments when the legislation was originally introduced in 2016. I am delighted that, three years on, the Minister is catching up with the Opposition.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: In respect of the Minister's amendments I am, in principle, in favour of a statutory definition of substantial refurbishments. That was always our position and, while I liked the version in the original Bill on account of it being so restrictive, we have to deal with the amendments in front of us. I have a couple of technical questions. The criteria for an extension are straightforward...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: Based on the analysis of the new qualifying criteria for everywhere outside of Dublin, which I presume the Minister or the RTB has done, what would be their impact or is it too early to say?