Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming in to the Chamber today. I believe strongly that the rights of tenants need to be carefully protected at this stage. I am talking about the legitimate rights of tenants. Obviously, I agree with the previous speaker about somebody who is not paying his or her rent. There are, by the way, some extraordinary, egregious cases of people who have run up €30,000 in arrears and are coldly and callously blocking any effort by landlords to get rid of them. I accept they are a minority and there are people who do not have the money to pay at the moment. One cannot assume, however, that everybody who is not paying their rent is financially embarrassed. There are people who simply say they are not paying and that is it.

The big issue is that the property rights of landlords must be put into a balance with the circumstances that exist in respect of the Covid-19 emergency. I am always preaching and writing and speaking on the radio about how this is an emergency. I hope that everybody in government and the health system generally, including the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, realise that the State is in an emergency. It is not purely a virus; there are all sorts of economic and social emergencies such as delayed cancer treatments and so forth. I make the point that this is an emergency and I am quite happy to extend periods because this crisis has turned out in a way which none of us quite expected last autumn.

This is not a lawyer's point. The emergency period provided for in this legislation is defined by the 2020 Act, which, curiously, describes the emergency as being a period in respect of which the 5 km movement limit is in operation. I spoke yesterday on the radio and my interviewer said he would bet that the 5 km will move to 10 km or whatever. I had not actually read the small print of this Bill because I can say with certainty that if the consequence of changing the 5 km and taking it out of operation is that all sorts of tenants will lose their rights, no such relaxation will take place. It was a mistake in 2020 to define the emergency period by so closely relating it to the 5 km movement restriction. We could still have an emergency with a 50 km or 20 km movement restriction. We are now stuck in the position that the Government cannot relax. When this Bill goes through, as it will today because there was an early signature motion for it, it will become law and all tenants will be protected. As a result, however, we will not be able to relax the 5 km restriction rule without the consequence of taking away these additional protections we are giving to tenants. That is an unfortunate piece of drafting. It is not the fault of the current Minister. It is a 2020 fault that should have been picked up now.What we are doing now is cementing in place the 5 km restriction on movement until that date in July. Nobody should be under any illusions; that is what we are doing here today.