John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his presentation of the Bill to the House and for the urgency with which he and the Department have brought it before the Houses. I suspect there will be some criticism of the decision made last week by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage to waive the pre-legislative scrutiny process but it is important to state that decision was made on the basis of advice from officials to the effect that failure to do so would have put tenants who have protections until 13 April in jeopardy of having no protections after that date. It was stated that it would be reckless to leave them in such a position, so it is important to pre-empt any criticism of the fact that pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill was waived.

I appeal to the Opposition not to distort the picture or in some way to present the Bill as something that will take away rights or protections from tenants, as was attempted yesterday by some in opposition in the Dáil. That will have the opposite effect to what we are trying to achieve, which is to protect tenants and make others aware that if they have been negatively impacted in financial terms as a result of Covid-19, there are protections of which they can avail.Negative commentary to the effect that the Government is somehow stripping away protections defeats the purpose of what all of us in this House are here to do, which is to protect people at the most vulnerable time of their lives, especially during the pandemic. It is not true to say that protections are being removed. Section 2 is being deliberately misrepresented because what we are actually talking about here is protecting tenants by means of section 1 and the previous iterations of the Bill, as we have done throughout the pandemic.

The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, stated in the Dáil yesterday that if we are still in the situation in July, the measure will be reviewed by the Government and that we could look at introducing further protections, if necessary, at that point. While it may be easy for the Opposition to say we should disregard the advice of the Attorney General or test the legislation in the courts, the reality is that the Government must ensure that any legislation we pass is proportionate, legal, constitutional and is not open to challenge. The Minister of State and his officials in the Custom House have done that with this technical Bill before us.

Given what went on in the Dáil yesterday, it is important to state that even though there were amendments and votes on sections that were opposed, the Bill was ultimately passed without opposition. No vote was taken on the Bill in its entirety at the end of the debate. I suspect that is what is going to happen again here today. We will have votes on sections but, ultimately, people will not put the Bill, which will protect tenants' rights, in jeopardy and remove those rights. I look forward to votes on various sections and on the overall substance of the Bill at the end of the debate if members of the Opposition are strongly opposed to elements what is proposed. Members can then put their money where their mouth is in that regard.

I will not take all of my allocated time because I am conscious that other speakers wish to contribute. There has been talk about evictions and incendiary language about throwing people out on the street but in fact we have significantly extended notice periods in recent years. The previous legislation extended the notice periods by ten days post 5 April in light of the 5 km restriction. There is also a minimum requirement of 28 days' notice where a tenancy is of less than six months duration. We have notice periods of 90 days or three months if someone has been in a tenancy of between six and 12 months. We have a notice period of 120 days where someone has been in a tenancy of between one year and three years. We have notice periods of 180 days or six months when someone is in a tenancy of not less than three years but less than seven years and 196 days when someone has a tenancy over seven years in duration. This is not something that will come into play immediately even if somebody is in circumstances where he or she has not been paying the rent.

As the Minister of State indicated in his contribution, 86% of landlords in this country own one or two houses. They too have bills and mortgages they need to pay on their properties. It is all about proportionality and balance. I do not know when we arrived at a situation where it is okay for a tenant not to pay rent.As a result of the pandemic, the Government has selectively catered for those who have been financially affected by Covid-19. We have put protections in place that are available to anyone who is in receipt of the temporary wage subsidy or illness benefit as a result of Covid-19. Those protections are available for anyone. Unfortunately, a large proportion of people in this country have the potential, if necessary, to engage with the protections in this legislation. Outside of that, we are talking about a small cohort of people who are not paying rents to their landlords for the properties in which they are in situ. I again commend the Minister and Department officials on bringing forward this legislation to protect tenants over the next three months up to 12 July.