Seanad debates

Wednesday, 17 July 2013

10:50 am

Photo of Sean BarrettSean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join in the compliments to Senator Gilroy on the event of his book launch. We had another distinguished author in the House yesterday, the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, and they are both in the tradition of W. B. Yeats, so we are expecting Nobel prizes from the Minister and Senator.

The very good news from the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, was his interest in the views of Senators from all sides of the House on the rights of tenants when a landlord becomes insolvent. He is open to the idea and will discuss it with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, Members of the House, New Beginning, Threshold and FLAC. There are some 150,000 buy-to-let mortgages, of which 30,000 are at risk. Some financial institutions think they can have vacant possession so we are almost back to the Land League, with its tenets of fair rent, fixity of tenure and free sale. The Minister was most receptive to what the House was saying and this is a point we should take up and run with in the interests of the 30,000 people who may be put out of their houses by the financial receivers where it is their principal private residence. We must develop a housing market in which the rented sector is much bigger than owner occupancy, which had rights, was in the past. The Minister's offer should be availed of by all Members of the House to assist those in an era when some financial institutions are contemplating evictions and repossessions.

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