Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I was not going to speak but the amendment is around raising the standards of the accommodation and for Senators who have been arguing for decent housing for people to then come in with an amendment that tries to carve out ways for people to evade rent caps is completely hypocritical. If one is willing to invest and use a property as an investment, one should be investing in it to meet a certain standard in the first place without it having to be written into the law for one to bring it up to that standard.

It is not fair to talk about balance in the Bill. If a person is a landlord and is in a position to have an investment property, the balance already lies with him or her. It does not lie with the tenant. The tenant is the one requiring a service and is renting the home. The balance never lies with the tenant.

This is about raising the standards. This amendment is about trying to find ways for landlords to evade rent caps. That is all it is. If one does not want to bring one's home up to the standard, one does not have to do it. The only reason one would want to do it is that one could evade the 4% cap. It is hypocritical for Senator Craughwell to come in here talking about tenants, housing and standards of living, and the conditions in which people live, and then table a landlord amendment because of some emails he received. I am sure Senator McDowell wrote the amendment for him and he should be here speaking on it himself instead of sending Senator Craughwell in.