Residential Tenancies and Valuation Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2020-07-31
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Lynn Boylan (SF), Agricultural Panel

I move amendment No. 2:
In page 5, lines 8 to 10, to delete all words from and including “serves” in line 8 down to and including line 10 and substitute “in the opinion of the Board—”.
I was not going to speak on this amendment because we had that agreement, but I will make a very quick point on the issue of balance. I have heard "balance" more times today, and it is a good job we are not playing a drinking game when it comes to the word "balance". There is no balance in this section because the Government is asking renters to sign declarations that, if they get wrong, could possibly lead to them being declared criminals, while the same is not being done with regard to landlords. Amendment No. 2 is asking that the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, assess the information it has to hand and to make the decision that the tenant is giving the information in good faith. If we trust the RTB to adjudicate on disputes why are we not allowing it to adjudicate on a person's circumstances? This is the reason there is no balance. Amendment No. 3 is about the word "significant" and there being no legal definition of "significant" risk. How will one assess the people who are eligible under these emergency protections if one does not have a legal definition of significant risk?

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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