Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have explained, Senator. He is here on his own. I respect this House, have come in here and asked the House for forbearance so that I can bring in this legislation that provides protections to tenants that are required in the middle of a pandemic, like I did in July. If we need additional protections into the future, as I said in July I would return to both Houses and introduce those, which is what I am doing and I am good to my word.

What I am also inclined to do, and what any Government must do, is act responsibly yet strike a balance. Going back to what Senator Burke has said, some Senators may not be aware that to have a functioning rental market we need a mix of providers. We need landlords, tenants, public housing and private housing. Without question the market is very fraught at the moment. We have lost 16,000 tenancies since 2015 for many reasons, part of which is down to tax treatment and regulation. We should examine the matter further. I want more public housing. I want affordable rentals, which I have said. The Government and I will deliver on that. It is in the programme for Government, in the Housing for All section, that was agreed by the three parties. The programme for Government is radical but realistic and deliverable. I can come in with measures and people can stoke fears, feed on it and try to gain political advantage. In some instances it is obvious that happened like in July and August when people said that there would be thousands of new homeless due to thousands of evictions but that did not happen.

I am more than confident that the measures we are bringing in here, with the support of all Members of this House, will have an effect. One of the reasons that I cannot go with six months is because I must be proportionate yet operate legally within the Constitution. Furthermore, I want to hardwire these regulations into the 1947 Act so that they are completely aligned. So at any stage whereby there is a restriction of 5 km, which is the public health restriction as mentioned earlier by Senator Cummins, this would automatically kick back in. Let us not forget that this is on top of what most of this House supported in July when we brought in the Residential Tenancies and Valuation Act 2020. People whose salary income has been affected by Covid-19 and the pandemic can avail of a self-declaration and get full protection against eviction to 11 January 2021 under legislation that has been place since 1 August 2020.

The temporary prohibition on tenancy terminations, under the Bill, operates under Section 31A of the health regulations. They are in force, as everyone knows, to restrict the movement of people outside of 5 km of their place of residence. The provision is intended to be agile, which means it activates and deactivates when tenants most need our help. In case people looking in from the outside think that all tenancies are in dispute, I wish to remind them that less than 2% of tenancies end up in dispute. We have resourced the Residential Tenancies Board, accordingly.

In response to what Senators asked me earlier, we have an additional €2 million into next year, 15 staff particularly on the investigations side, additional moneys for local authorities and €10 million extra to carry out inspections. Where we do have rogue landlords prosecutions should be brought, and I have encouraged the RTB to do this although it does not need much encouragement.