Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is not. The legislation does not discriminate against any individual in society. The legislation treats all renters and all citizens equally. I want to raise the issue of withholding of rent. It is important that the legislation does not discriminate against any member of society. It is important that we remember that small landlords are citizens as well. I want to share with the Minister of State a real-life example of a landlord and his experience with a tenant withholding rent. This was a man in his 60s who entered into a personal relationship with somebody else, moved out of his home and rented that home. He did so legitimately, registered the property, charged a fair market rent and was happy to make his home available to somebody else on a fully legitimate rental basis. The personal relationship broke down and he also was diagnosed with a terminal illness. He needed to move back into his home and served notice. In the interim the tenant had been withholding rent over a prolonged period and had been advertising the property on Airbnb, generating many multiples of the rent in income from Airbnb. The matter went to the RTB. The RTB took 12 months and only after my intervention did we start to get some satisfaction. That was a man who had done the good thing in making his home available on a rental basis. He did not need it and saw that there was a need there. He had maintained the property, provided it at a fair rent and complied with all of the regulations. He became ill and needed his home back, and still complied with all of the regulations, even though he had his obligations to pay a mortgage on that property in the absence of receiving a rent and, at the same time, witnessing the abuse of his property, and it being rented out for many multiples of the rent he was charging. That is a real-life example. The RTB should not have taken as long as it did to resolve that issue. It should not have needed a public representative to get involved. The RTB needs to step up its act for tenants and for landlords. We need to ensure that we have a secure, sustainable rental market.