Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

He is still here anyway, which is good. I welcome the Bill, which makes good on the programme for Government promise. We committed to legislating for tenancies of indefinite tenure and giving tenants greater legal security. I was a tenant for many years and I did not realise the latent fear I lived with until I finally got my own home. I remember being afraid to put a screw in the wall and hang shelves because I thought I might need to move and I would get into trouble. That is something many renters need to live with. I managed to scrimp and save and build my own house using direct labour a few years ago. It made a big difference to me and I feel very lucky in that.

Looking at the Bill reminds me of the lack of fixity of tenure, which I know the Bill will address in some ways. There are a few things we may need to look at. A tenant of less than six months is only required to be given 28 days' notice to move out. Twenty-eight days goes by very quickly, especially for somebody trying to find somewhere to live today. It is very stressful and I remember a few times having to pack up all my belongings. As a single mother, it was my son and me. I remember I managed to break my foot. While on crutches I had to pack up all my belongings as well as packing up all my son's stuff. It was so traumatic. I did not realise how depressed I was at the time. I was deeply depressed about it. We had only been given four weeks which was not long enough. It is a big trauma whenever someone moves home. Even for someone in a tenancy less than six months, the 28 days is not long enough and we should push for it to be longer.

We have done some good stuff. It is good to see a 19% reduction in the number of individuals in emergency accommodation. I know it is very hard to find houses for individuals who really need one-bedroom flats and we do not have many of those. We mainly have houses of two or three bedrooms and it is hard to put a single individual in a two or three-bedroom house. It is good that that has been reduced. Of course, the recorded numbers do not include the hidden homeless or people who double up with friends or family. My son should be living in Galway, but he is commuting a couple of days a week and doing the rest online because he could not find anywhere to rent in Galway. Let us not pretend we do not have major issues there, but they were handed to the Minister on a broken plate I suppose.

The Peter McVerry Trust states that the recent increase is largely due to the slowdown in construction following the Covid restrictions. The sector expects the numbers to reduce in the coming months, which is positive. Last week, I called on tradespeople from Ireland who had emigrated to return as their country needs them now more than ever and I reiterate that call tonight. It is not all about building new homes. I know we are bringing in legislation on empty and derelict buildings which will help with this. We need a many-pronged attack to deal with this housing crisis.

Landlords should not be allowed to kick out a tenant just because they want to sell a house. If they are selling a house to rent it, could the current renter not stay in the house? Is that not less hassle for the landlord also? Often landlords when selling a house tell the tenant to leave and then they rent it to somebody else. That tenant could have been left alone and continued renting after the sale. Some work remains to be done on that aspect.

Airbnb faces some restrictions in Dublin. I live in a very popular spot in north Clare. I looked up the details online and found two places to rent but 79 different Airbnb properties. I do not mind people using Airbnb to let out a room or two in their home. However, it is wrong to have entire houses and apartments on Airbnb when people are crying out for somewhere to live. We will need to look at that on a national basis. Letting out entire properties on Airbnb is not just a Dublin issue. While it takes a long time to build a house, having existing housing stock tied up on Airbnb is not helping us deal with the housing crisis. It is brilliant for tourists to have a place to stay, but unfortunately homelessness is a bigger issue. I would like the Minister to look at the Airbnb aspect. Properties being tied up on Airbnb reduces the number of houses available for rent. The laws of supply and demand mean it increases the price of rent and we have all seen the rent increases this year.

An idea that has been used in other places is for a landlord, who needs to ask somebody to leave, to contact the Residential Tenancies Board so that the process of trying to get the tenant a new place starts well in advance of the date on which that person must move out. That has worked well in Senator Cummins's county, Waterford. A variation of this idea has been used to great effect where there are integrated homeless services on Parnell Street in the city. It is operated by Waterford City and County Council along with the HSE, South East Simon Community and Focus Ireland. Clare County Council also has two homeless service providers with offices in the county buildings. We need to see that kind of joined-up thinking rolled out across the country.

At 5 o'clock on Sunday, I saw a man in a sleeping bag on the street. I did not know what to do, where to go or who to call about it. If I did not know, there is no way the person in the sleeping bag knew what to do. We need this joined-up thinking on homeless services and intervention. We need a plan such that if a tenant is asked to leave, the RTB is informed with preventative measures in place.

I welcome the Bill overall. It is good that it was in the programme for Government. We want to improve the security of tenure for tenants through legislating for tenancies of indefinite duration, increasing RTB inspections and enforcements, and examining incentives for long-term leasing.

There are all kinds of landlords. In the last four places that my son rented in Galway the landlords insisted on cash only. He had to pay cash. In the case of one landlord, she was going to five houses in a row. She came into the house every week and collected cash. That is not fair either. Some things remain to be done here. Students do not want to lose a house and they are afraid to say anything. There is still an issue with landlords collecting cash and tenants being unable to get a receipt.

There are a few issues there and while the Minister will not solve them all in this Bill, it represents progress in the right direction and I thank him for his work on it.