Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State. Before I call the next Commencement matter, I welcome the pupils and teachers of Whitechurch National School, and their rector, whom I happen to know. It is great to see them here; I did not know they were coming here today. They are guests of the Minister of State, Deputy Neale Richmond. They are all very welcome here. To explain, this is the part of the Seanad for Commencement matters, when Senators table questions on issues of concern to them. They are raised and the Senators set out their stall in four minutes, a Minister responds in four minutes and then there is a minute on either side for supplementaries. It is an important part. It happens every day in the Seanad and it is called Commencement matters.

I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for coming to the house. I call Minister Cosgrove.

Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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Thank you. Minister Cosgrove.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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Senator Cosgrove, I should say. I have not promoted you yet.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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It suits.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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Senator Cosgrove has four minutes to set out her stall.

Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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Lovely. Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I start by acknowledging the role my former county council colleagues Michael Clarke and Joe Queenan have played in bringing this matter to national attention, and to Sorcha Crowley, a Sligo native, for raising this issue in The Irish Times last week.

To give the Minister of State some background, Sonas Retirement Village is made up of 27 dwellings located in the immediate surroundings of Sonas Ard na Gréine Nursing Home in Enniscrone, County Sligo. These homes were constructed with the express purpose of being, in the words of the original planning permission, "run in conjunction with [the] existing Ard na Greine nursing home". The name of the development, according to the Residential Tenancies Board, is Sonas Retirement Village. The houses are all single-storey dwellings laid out and equipped for occupation by people with restricted mobility, including wheelchair users. The internal and external doors - I visited the houses myself - are wide enough to easily accommodate wheelchairs and the bungalows have wet rooms instead of traditional bathrooms.

Last Friday, I visited a number of the residents' bungalows, including that of Frank and Elizabeth. Frank is an 88-year-old wheelchair user with dementia. Elizabeth, who is 84, is Frank's wife and has been his carer for the past number of years. When Elizabeth and Frank moved into the retirement village, they were given to understand that each house formed part of a retirement village surrounded by the Sonas nursing home. The residents were told they could access the services of the nursing home, such as home help, social events and so on, if required. If and when the time came that their health deteriorated, they could seamlessly transition into the care of the nursing home. Elizabeth kept all the records. She showed me all the paperwork she had maintained over the years, including correspondence with Sonas letterhead, which indicated the Sonas bank account the rent was to be paid into. At no time were they or any other households I spoke to given any indication that the landlord was any organisation other than Sonas.

What I am painting here is a picture of a retirement village based around the physical presence and service of an adjacent nursing home. This was a place the elderly and disabled tenants chose to move into - a place where they could see out and live their days together in the knowledge that their physical and social needs could be met, but this certainly transpired to be an illusion.Last November, the occupants of six of the houses, who are all elderly or disabled, received notices of termination from Nasso Bk Holdings Limited, which identified itself at that stage to be the landlord of the properties. These bungalows, which were constructed with the express intention of housing elderly and disabled people, now appear to be treated as a financial asset that can be traded, sold or even left vacant in order to maximise the financial return of the owners and the individual directors who own this Irish-registered company. These eviction notices served on vulnerable people have not been issued by a faceless multinational vulture fund but an Irish-owned company.

My concern is that mass evictions throughout the country seem to have been triggered by the market reset clause in the recent residential tenancies Act. Some landlords seem to view the change in legislation as an opportunity to maximise the asset, make more profits by evicting existing tenants, and sell or even sit on the properties and keep them vacant. In the climate generated by the implementation of the recent residential tenancies Act, more profits are to be made by an empty property then by having people in it. This is never okay and it is not acceptable.

The recent residential tenancies Act was intended to provide security. I understand there was good intent envisaged in the six-year tenancies but guillotining the legislation in both Houses has led to this unintended consequence. These six evictions are just the tip of the iceberg. With all evictions at present, the tenants have nowhere to go. Enniscrone is like every other village and town across Ireland, with nowhere to rent or to go. These people have built their lives around this small village and there is nowhere for them to go. To remind the Minister of State, this involves people aged 84 and 88. It is apparent that the residential tenancies Act has not only failed to increase security of tenure for elderly and disabled tenants living in private rental accommodation, but is leading to an immediate decrease in security of tenure in situations such as this.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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I do not have the exact details of this case but Senator Cosgrove has set them out quite clearly. She has described a picture in which some of the most vulnerable people in our society have had no input in a situation where their future is uncertain. They do not know where they are going to go. She referenced people with dementia and people with mobility issues. They are some of the most vulnerable older people in society. I appeal to those involved and to the owners to have a heart and to consider the impact that any such move would have on these individuals. The work Senator Cosgrove is doing and the picture she has painted is heartbreaking. I will outline the legislative background behind this and the role of the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, which I hope will help. Perhaps we can further discuss other options.

The Residential Tenancies Acts 2004 to 2026 regulate the landlord-tenant relationship in the residential rental sector and set out the rights and obligations of landlords and tenants. The Acts protect tenants and landlords of all ages, with or without a disability. The Acts apply to every dwelling that is the subject of a tenancy, subject to a limited number of exceptions. Dwellings covered by the Acts include the private rental sector, the cost rental sector, the approved housing body sector and student specific accommodation.

The Residential Tenancies Board was established as an independent statutory body under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 to operate a national tenancy registration system and to facilitate the resolution of disputes between landlords and tenants. The dispute resolution service provided by the RTB is quasi-judicial and all of its mediators, adjudicators and tribunal members have independent decision-making powers in the same way as judges have in the courts. Where there is a question as to the validity of a notice of termination, a tenant can submit a dispute for resolution with the RTB under Part 6 of the Acts. Its website, rtb.ie, can be assessed for information on the RTB's dispute resolution service. Due to the quasi-judicial nature of the RTB's dispute resolution service, it would be inappropriate for me, as Minister of State, or the Department to provide legal advice or to intervene in the specifics of any individual case.

Significant legislative changes have been introduced over the past number of years to enhance security of tenure for all tenants. From 6 July 2022, the Residential Tenancies Acts have been amended to further enhance tenancy protections, including by providing for tenancies of unlimited duration after six months under tenancies without a valid notice of termination having been served, and the extension of termination notice periods where there has been no breach of obligations.

The Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2026 came into operation on 1 March 2026. The reform of the rental sector provides stronger protections for tenants and encourages investment in the sector through updated rent controls. In order to provide greater security of tenure for tenants, the 2026 Act provides stronger tenant protections by significantly restricting no fault evictions for new tenancies. The existing provision for tenancies of unlimited duration is strengthened by the incorporation of rolling six-year tenancies of minimum duration. How a landlord can end any existing tenancy agreement is not impacted by the new rental changes. The stronger tenancy protections only apply to a new tenancy created on or after 1 March 2026. There is no six-year rent resetting option or six-year rolling tenancies of minimum duration for pre-March 2026 tenancies.

This outlines the position. I appreciate the case that Senator Cosgrove is making on behalf of these people. We cannot necessarily intervene by providing legal advice but I appeal to the owners of the properties in this instance to have regard for some of the most vulnerable people in society.

Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State for listening to the real story behind these people. The tenants I have met are old, vulnerable, confused and scared. I appeal to the hopefully higher nature of the people who own the units. In the event of this not happening, there have to be emergency provisions in place whereby the Department can step in and acquire these properties via compulsory purchase order. I know from being a county councillor that the local authorities do not have the money. They have legislation whereby they could use compulsory purchase orders but they do not have the money. County councils should be resourced to look at whether there is a breach of the residential tenancies legislation in the sale of ownership and whether residents are being told there is a new landlord. The sale of the nursing home was authorised by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission but were these houses to be part of this also? There is a lot more to this than meets the eye. We have seen that 10,500 eviction notices have been issued since June last year, as soon as there was talk of changes to the residential tenancies legislation.

I thank the Minister of State for listening and I hope we will be able to have further conversations about this.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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The purpose of the Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2026 is to try to create an environment where we can get more units built so that there is more accommodation and we can eventually address issues such as homelessness and the cost of rent and introduce security of tenure. I appreciate that the situation being raised by Senator Cosgrove was prior to the legislation. I cannot speak about the specifics. I do not want to say or do anything that would have a negative impact on the people Senator Cosgrove is representing. I will say that, in general, where situations arise where there is a possibility that a potential solution can be arrived at through partnership between the local authority and the Department, where people's security of tenure is impacted and people's lives are being changed for the worst, it is a conversation that needs to happen. I will not say any more than this. In general, the local authority and the Department should have discussions to see how something such as this can be addressed.