Residential Tenancies and Valuation Bill 2020: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2020-07-31 ============================================================ Vincent P. Martin (GP), Nominated by the Taoiseach Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Chathaoirleach. I will begin by congratulating the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, in his new job, which of all the Ministers of State is one of great responsibilities. Perhaps he is first among equals where he is in the eye of the storm. Our country, both landlords and tenants, will be looking for leadership from the Minister of State. This is the crux of the matter. The Government is not an advocacy group but must protect the rights of landlords and tenants and act in the common good. It also has a statutory responsibility to support the good work of the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB. I am quite familiar with the work of the RTB, formerly the PRTB. The Green Party-Fianna Fáil Government appointed me to the PRTB and the subsequent Government of Fine Gael-Labour Party reappointed me. There was an examination then for the third appointment, where one was just a number, which I liked most of all as everyone was completely anonymous. I was reappointed then having passed the exam. I have sat for many years and I believe I was the longest-serving barrister on the RTB’s dispute appeals committee listening and adjudicating on appeals. I have many memories from my days there and they are all good. The administrative staff of the RTB worked heroically and were understaffed at the time. They called us up during weekends and outside of normal working hours, without any extra remuneration. It was most disappointing to hear Deputy MacSharry have a cheap shot at public and civil servants. That is not my experience of the hard-working people in the administration wing of the Residential Tenancies Board who one never hears about. Then one has the adjudicators, to whom the dispute goes first, followed by the tribunal hearings - in my time it was three but under the new legislation it can at times sit as one person - all of whom were expert in going to Cork and other places, always under the law taking public transport and arriving back in their homes at 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. I know that this is the wrong climate in which to say this to the Minister of State but in better times, which I hope are not too far away, he will consider better terms and conditions for the good, hard-working, expert people who adjudicate and sit on tribunals for the RTB because they need more recognition. At all times, all parties, be they landlords or tenants, were treated with the utmost respect by the RTB. I will debunk a common myth that the RTB is a pro-tenant decision-making place. It was anything but that. It was fair and equal. On the statistics from the RTB, in my tenure I have probably written more appeal judgments than most, and they are all published on the world wide web at this stage, because its administration is done in public. I appreciate that in this Bill, due to the pandemic, we have to forsake temporarily the administration of justice in public which is unfortunate but I fully understand this. Both sides in the RTB always got a fair hearing but what is not widely known was that many landlords came before us who were in tears because, contrary to public perception, they were not millionaires but were facing homelessness themselves. My heart went out to tenants and one does everything possible within the legal parameters where one is in within a quasi-judicial role, which is very restrictive in its interpretation by the Act. The landlords were facing a situation where they wanted to sell their property or use it for a family member because of tough times. I am aware that there are hedge funds as well but I am talking about a cohort of landlords. I call them the accidental landlords who are leaving the rental sector. I understand that the Minister of State must strike a balance and there are legal restrictions in how to strike that balance between constitutional property rights as enshrined in our Constitution and as interpreted by jurisprudence, including in the well-known Madigan cases where what I would like to see and what is perhaps legally and constitutionally permissible are two very different things. I would do everything possible for tenants. I always have. I was a founder of the New Beginning group of lawyers who kept mortgage holders in their homes when there was no legal aid or personal insolvency regime on a statutory basis in this country. That may be yesteryear but I was involved in the RTB up to a couple of years ago, or less. It is so important to strike that balance. This Bill clearly extends notices of termination periods, and prohibits rent increases but in certain circumstances, and this is obviously not enough for this part of the House. I accept that, but to do more, under legal advice which I am sure goes with every proposed Bill that comes before the House, one does not want to see something struck down in its entirety. If we are really serious about this, the place to tackle it is the Constitution. An amendment would give us the power to do the things we would love to do. We should take a cross-party approach. A right to housing is called for in the programme for Government. Enshrining this right would strengthen the hand of tenants, who, through no fault of their own, have come under incredible pressure. It is important to address this in a way which balances both rights or droves of accidental landlords will leave the market. The rental system in Ireland is broken. I accept that. However, it is so disproportionate to think that a blunt instrument contained in one Bill can fix the rental system, which is a part of the overall housing system and affects homelessness. It does not deal with the problem we face. Over-reliance on a silver-bullet solution in the form of this Bill cannot work. We need a much more holistic approach to keeping people safely in their homes. We must take an evidence-based approach and balance the rights of landlords and tenants. I fully agree that this should come before us on a regular basis. Right now, I do not hear a huge clamour to sell properties. If I did I would be very concerned. I will conclude on this note. If a tribunal makes a declaration calling for a property to be vacated, it is usually very generous and gives a long stay of execution. Then a landlord must go to the courts to enforce it. There is time to get this right and keep it under regular and constant review. I will be very open-minded about that. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2020-07-31/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:31+00:00 Sitting date: 2020-07-31