Vincent P Martin (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is always a pleasure to welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, to the Chamber. He is doing towering work in his own specific portfolio of responsibility. That is for another day, however. I would just like to commend him on that. He is here standing in to discuss a most pressing emergency. Previous speakers said that it is urgent and an emergency. In an emergency, normal rules do not apply. It is unprecedented. Yes, property rights are enshrined in the Constitution but they are not absolute rights.

I note, for instance, that this amending legislation is time-specific to 31 March 2023. That is more about striking a balance. In my humble opinion, if it were permanent, it would have crossed the line of what we have to deal with. I refer to Bunreacht na hÉireann as it stands at present. If it were silent and no date were given, I would be worried that this would have crossed the line and been repugnant to the Constitution. I am in no doubt that under the advice of the Attorney General, this has been thought out very carefully. There have been challenges in the past, some of which have been successful in the vindication of property rights. In the hierarchy of rights, however, the right to a home trumps property rights, as is made explicitly clear in the Constitution.

Then there is more of a balance in that there are exceptions. Section 16 of the principal Act, for instance, states the obligations on tenants. In other words, this does not affect the rights of third parties who can, from time to time, find their families turned upside down by the landlord not taking appropriate and reasonable steps to reduce and eliminate antisocial behaviour. The innocent third party, that is, the neighbour, is at the brunt end of that. I am glad to see that survives this emergency legislation. Like so many in the Chamber, I have a track record in politics. I make no apologies for it.My track record is very sympathetic towards tenants. As a founder of New Beginning in 2010, I saw at first hand the carnage and how it turned families upside down when there was no personal insolvency legislation in this country. Yet, now we have one of the best personal insolvency regimes in Europe. At the time, people were worried about how it would affect property rights, but now banks are forced to accept write-downs. While the Constitution must be respected, I am glad to see that it is not disproportionately stymying the legislator today. What we have here is a reasonable approach to an extreme emergency. I say that as someone who has a rental property. Perhaps I am not considered objective, given my record on this issue and what I have said in the past, but our sympathies must go to tenants in an emergency. This has been supported by jurisprudence over many years. A judgment by Mr. Justice Gerard Hogan speaks of the overriding position of the home as a place of repose. People go home and expect a bit of peace, comfort and safety in the four walls of their own home. I am glad that this Government has put tenants first. I would like this legislation to go further, and I am sure others would, but it cannot go further under the current constitutional provisions. My party supports the right to housing. That sounds great, but what does it mean? We have to drill down into it and tease it out to make sure that it protects security of tenure and tenants. I see more balance and common sense in this amending legislation, which provides that Part 4 rights are not accrued during the deferral period. That is the point. It is a deferral and a postponement; it is not permanent. Otherwise, we would be in uncharted constitutional danger. I would love this legislation to have gone much further, but I am satisfied that it cannot.

I commend the Opposition. I have read the Dáil debates and they have been largely very constructive. It is not a political issue. Families are receiving notices of termination. There are two similarities with Covid in respect of this emergency. One is the financial pain it visits on families and the other is the uncertainty. We are not sure when this is going to end. We have a time-specific date. I will be happy to come back to the Chamber, review that and extend it, if necessary, next March to protect our tenants.