Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will speak on amendments Nos. 2, 4 and 6 to 8, inclusive. I have a few comments in response to the Minister's contribution. He says that less than 2% of tenancies end in dispute. I wonder if that is because there are options open to the landlord if he or she wants the tenancy to come to an end, be it to end the tenancy on the basis of a family member moving in or on the basis of selling the property, which is not always the case. The Minister also said that there are two parties to every tenancy. That is true, but one is more vulnerable than the other. One of the parties is also maintaining a home, contributing to the community and creating a sense of place in that community. That is not being reflected in the current situation.

We should also remember that we are discussing a very bureaucratic procedure. That is evident in how technical the Minister's contributions are. There are 299,000 renters in the State. Am I right that approximately 400 people have made declarations with regard to what we are discussing today? There are 299,000 renters, but it is not a great place to be at times. I have friends who do not hear from the landlord and who would never approach their landlord, even about structural ageing of the house. The attitude is not to mention it or say anything, and that if they do not hear from the landlord, he or she will not hear from them. It is a vulnerable place to be. I believe this is quite a bureaucratic process and that should be put on the record.

In all the amendments, we are discussing limited and narrow protections for which only 400 renters have applied. Was the Minister disappointed with the uptake and does he not think more could have been done by way of an information campaign? We want these people to continue to be protected. With over 299,000 renters in the State, we welcome any extension in these limited protections, but the Government could have gone further. Our amendments simply seek to extend further the period of the same protections that we criticised as narrow and weak when they were introduced in August.