Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House again. I welcome the Bill and its provisions. In particular, I welcome the provisions in Part 3 that provide additional protections to tenants. I refer to measures to prevent another Tyrrelstown where over 40 families were served with eviction notices when a vulture fund took over the properties. I welcome the measures to close the loopholes in the Residential Tenancies Act 2014.

I welcome the measures outlined in Part 4 that provide for lending by the Housing Finance Agency to certain bodies for specified purposes, including the purchase of vacant properties for social housing. There are many vacant properties all over cities and towns in Ireland that could be turned into homes.

The provisions in Part 3 will only help a minority of tenants. We urgently need wholesale security of tenure and rent certainty measures as they would protect all tenants. The call for security of tenure and full rent certainty is supported by a range of civil society groups, including the Simon Communities of Ireland. I worked for the Cork Simon Community for many years so I saw at first hand the devastating impact homelessness has on people. Let us be in no doubt that rising rents and a lack of rental security drive people into homelessness. This morning Focus Ireland provided a briefing. It highlighted that in the past two years a growing number of families have cited landlords selling up as the primary reason for them experiencing homelessness. All of the good work that has been done to address the homelessness problem is being undone by people falling into homelessness due to properties being sold. Legislation needs to protect families when this happens and new measures are needed.

People have suffered and continue to suffer the impact of an under regulated rental market. The market is broken and dysfunctional so needs to be fixed. We need to make the market operate in the best way possible. Rent stability measures were introduced in 2015 but they have not had the desired effect of slowing down the market and off-setting rising rents. Last month the Simon Communities of Ireland published a report entitled Locked Out of the Market. I draw the attention of the Minister to the following figures contained in the report and I quote:

Rents increased in Cork City by an average 18.2% in the year to Q2 2016;

rents increased in Dublin City Centre by an average of 10% in the year to Q2 2016; and

rents increased in County Louth by an average of 14.6% in the year to Q2 2016.

Senator Ó Clochartaigh mentioned Galway city and I can inform him about rent increase because the report continued as follows:

Rents increased in Galway city by an average of 13.9% in the year to Q2 2016;

rents increased in County Kildare by an average of 12.5% in the year to Q2 2016;

rents increased in County Leitrim by an average of 7.5% in the year to Q2 2016;

rents increased in Limerick city by an average of 15.5% in the year to Q2 2016;

rents increased in County Laois by an average of 12% in the year to Q2 2016; and

rents increased in County Sligo by an average of 3.8% in the year to Q2 2016.

The report shows rising rents are a problem for people nationwide and it is not just a problem for people who live in the cities of Dublin and Cork.

The commendable and ambitious Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness - Rebuilding Ireland commits to creating a sustainable, secure and affordable rental sector. The action plan contains a commitment that reads, "Security - bringing greater certainty to tenants and landlords". Unfortunately, this Bill does not fully provide any of that and I agree that it is a missed opportunity.

I welcome the fact that the Bill will be supplemented by a new rental strategy that will be launched next month. It is kind of the Minister to offer to bring it to the House in order to give us an opportunity to debate the legislation. I acknowledge that the Bill is a welcome step in the right direction but we need more action sooner rather than later for the thousands of children, families, men and women who are homeless around Ireland tonight.