Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairperson very much. I am glad she raised that issue. There are two problems with the Commencement matters. I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, who is does not have the portfolio, nor is he in Department relating to the Commencement matter I raised. I also have an issue with the Seanad Office accepting that the Department I wanted to answer the question refused and passed the buck to another Department. I wanted the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to respond to this matter. It passed the buck to the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and today I have a Minister of State who is not in either of those Departments here to answer the question.

I raise an issue faced by renters and owner occupiers in apartment buildings with management companies. Clauses in rental agreements prohibit residents from drying their clothes outside on balconies, in gardens, from windows and, in some cases, even inside the property if the clothing is visible from the outside. In principle, it is a draconian overreach by landlords and management companies to tell people how they should be drying their clothes. I cannot think of any good reason landlords feel the need to do this, besides preserving some warped aesthetic sensibility which smacks of snobbery to me. If that is the case, they need to grow up. We live in the real world. We are in a cost-of-living crisis and a climate crisis. The implications for the tenant and society certainly trump the aesthetics of having some clothes hanging on a clothesline.

The net effect of these bans is that people are left with no choice but to use energy-intensive appliances such as tumble dryers. Unfortunately, I wanted to say this to the Minister or a Minister of State in the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, which is currently running a campaign on the national airwaves telling people not to use their tumble dryers, and it is absolutely correct.They are energy intensive, but the Department is literally gaslighting entire swathes of the population who have no choice but to use tumble dryers because their management companies or tenancy agreements will not allow them to dry their clothes outside, or on clothes horses on balconies. In a cost-of-living crisis, the use of tumble dryers adds to the cost. There are also health implications because if renters cannot dry their clothes out on the balcony or they cannot afford to use the dryer, the moisture is not good for their respiratory illnesses either.

What needs to happen to solve the problem, which does not fall to the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, is that legislation must be amended to create an obligation on landlords and management companies to allow renters and owner-occupiers to dry their clothes. That could be achieved by amending section 12 of the Residential Tenancies Act. I look forward to hearing the response that was sent by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, which will probably tell me all about the wonderful campaigns it is running on the airwaves about how we can save energy. What I really want is to get a response from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which I will continue to try to pursue.