Residential Tenancies and Valuation Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2020-07-31
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Lynn Ruane (IND), University of Dublin

I struggle to see the connection between bad tenants who are not paying rent or breaking contracts in other ways and the intent of this amendment. This amendment is about protecting people and allowing the months for which they are living in a given accommodation to accrue towards giving them protection rights. It does not, in any way, shape or form, allow such tenants to live rent-free or to break any other contractual obligations. All the amendment does is protect tenants living in houses and allows the months for which they are living there to accrue for the purposes of building up their rights. There seems to be some confusion. If the confusion is on my part, I am willing to listen to an explanation, but I do not believe it is. When we tabled this amendment in March, we did a lot of work. This does not allow people who are not paying rent to stay in accommodation. It has nothing to do with preventing the eviction of tenants who refuse to pay rent. It is about allowing tenants to count the months they lived in a given accommodation during the Covid lockdown in building up their rights to stay.
Under the legislation the former Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, brought in last year or the year before, if someone lives in a residence for certain set periods of time - one year, two years, three years and six years - he or she will accrue certain rights. This legislation says that time spent living in a residence during the Covid lockdown no longer counts towards the time one has accumulated living in that residence. This amendment seeks to correct that.

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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