Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister and wish him well in his portfolio. I, too, believe that we cannot fix the housing crisis in this House or with this Bill.

In terms of landlords, we cannot have landlords without tenants or tenants without landlords. Landlords have played a very important role for many years and I hope that they play a role going forward. Quite a lot of landlords have left the market over the past five or six years. Why have more landlords left than entered the industry? We should debate the issue.

In terms of breaching the number of persons allowed in a household during the pandemic, whether there are more than two, four or ten people in a rented house, who is the person responsible? Fairly severe fines of up to €1,500 have been put in place for a breach but who is responsible for paying the fine? Is it the landlord or the occupier of the house? People now rent rooms in people's homes. Who pays the fine if a number of people have rooms in a house? Is it one person, three or four persons or is each individually responsible for paying if a fine is issued by the Garda Síochána?