Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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636. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his views on extending the moratorium on evictions until 31 December 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14337/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Residential Tenancies Act 2020 was enacted and came into operation on 24 October 2020. The Act aims to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on tenants and to support the Government's efforts to restrict the movement of people in order to suppress the spread of this virus.

The Act modifies the operation of the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004-2020 to prevent any notices of termination served by landlords, in all but limited cases such as anti-social behaviour, from taking effect in geographical locations and during periods specified by the Minister for Health in Regulations made by him under section 31A of the Health Act 1947 in respect of which a restriction applies on the movement of people outside a 5 km radius of their place of residence. These tenancy protections also apply during the 10 days directly following the period specified by the Minister for Health in the aforementioned Regulations.

Once the Minister for Health makes regulations restricting movement outside a 5 km radius of one's place of residence, the moratorium on evictions taking place takes effect. 

A moratorium on evictions taking place is currently in operation throughout the country from 31 December 2020 to 15 April 2021, with limited exceptions. The provisions of the Residential Tenancies Act 2020 have been reinstated on foot of the 5km restrictions on people’s movements under the following regulations:

-  the Health Act 1947 (Section 31A - Temporary Restrictions) (Covid-19) (No. 10) Regulations 2020 (S.I. No. 701 of 2020);

-  the Health Act 1947 (Section 31A - Temporary Restrictions) (Covid-19) (No. 10) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2021 – (S.I. No. 29 of 2021); and  

- the Health Act 1947 (Section 31A - Temporary Restrictions) (Covid-19) (No. 10) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2021 - (S.I. No. 95 of 2021).

Building on the urgent Covid-19 rental measures to date, Part 3 (Residential Tenancies) of the Planning and Development, and Residential Tenancies, Act 2020 (the PDRTA) was enacted on 19 December 2020 to provide for temporary modifications to the operation of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 to provide, subject to certain conditions, that during the period from 11 January to 12 April 2021 a 90 day (rather than the usual 28 days) termination notice period applies, where a tenant is in rent arrears due to Covid-19 and is at risk of losing their tenancy. The earliest termination date allowed in such circumstances is 13 April 2021. Rent increases are also prohibited for relevant tenancies until 13 April 2021, with no back-dating allowed. These protections are designed to better balance the legal rights of landlords and tenant and a guidance document on the PDRTA is available on the RTB's website - www.rtb.ie.

On 9 March 2021, the Government approved the publication of the Residential Tenancies Bill 2021 with a view to early enactment before 13 April 2021, to extend the PDRTA protections to 12 July 2021.