Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I agree with him that in the present situation, it is important that people should not be evicted in circumstances that are brought upon them by the pandemic or which make it difficult for them to secure alternative accommodation in the course of the crisis. If this involves the abridgement of landlords' rights to some extent, then, as the Minister outlined, the Constitution clearly indicates that property rights are not sacred and the common good must at all times be seen as something that delimits the total protection of property rights where there are adverse social consequences or implications for the common good.

The Minister has made his apologies for the way in which the Bill is being dealt with in the House. I will not waste much time on that other than to state the simple fact that the business of this House is being reduced largely to rubber-stamping. It is happening on all fronts. The Minister has been very polite and kind in apologising for it in advance but I must say that there is a tendency to try to stop the legislative process from being fully operational and for the Executive to push forward legislation. There is time to consider a lot of issues and we must protect not our rights as Senators but our entitlement to carry out our duties as Senators, which include looking at all the proposals that are put before us and examining them carefully to see whether they will achieve their particular aims in a proportionate and balanced way, as claimed by the people who initiate Bills. Having said that, I appreciate the Minister's apology in advance for asking that all Stages be dealt with today.

One of the consequences of the Bill being dealt with this speedily is that I am denied the opportunity to tender an amendment I intended to propose to the next residential tenancies legislation to deal with the difficulty that now arises where landlords are charging rents that were unlawfully set in breach of the upper limits provided for rent pressure zone rentals. There is a difficulty in that the new regime the Minister has introduced of administrative penalties and investigations carried out by the Residential Tenancies Board depends on the applicability of something called "improper conduct", as defined in Schedule 2 to the 2004 Act, under Part 7A as inserted by the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2019 . It appears there is a problem in respect of the exact application of these new procedures because the 2004 Act, as amended, refers to the setting of the rent being the improper conduct rather than the collection of the rent. The Act is very detailed and provides that the setting of rent is defined very clearly as taking place at the time when the rent is provided for or agreed rather than afterwards. There is a question as to whether the improper conduct applies to somebody who, historically, reached the rent pressure zone limits and whose only sin now is collecting the excessive rent. It is unclear whether Part 7A applies to that situation or not.

I had intended to put the matter beyond doubt by introducing an amendment making it very clear that it is not just somebody who sets the rent who engages in improper conduct but that anybody who continues to receive the rent or demand it should also be covered. However, because all Stages of the new Bill are being dealt with today, that opportunity does not arise. I ask the Minister to look very carefully at this issue. If it is the case that the powers of the Residential Tenancies Board to investigate such behaviour are limited to cases where the rent was set after those powers came into existence, but do not apply to the collection of the rent after the powers came into existence, then there is a loophole through which landlords who are greedy and are breaking the law may escape. It is a very arcane point but I intended dealing with it in an amendment as soon as the next available train left the station. Unfortunately, the train is leaving the station with no right for my particular carriage to be added to the back of it.