Residential Tenancies and Valuation Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2020-07-31
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Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland

Section 9 relates to the tables and the various circumstances under which people in Part 4 tenancies might be evicted. It goes to the absolute core of the issue I mentioned earlier, which is the fact we have a desperate imbalance in the system as is. I will not speak excessively on the two amendments that have been ruled out of order but they relate to the table in section 9. We have been hearing about balance and that when we do something for renters we have to think how it would affect landlords. I reiterate the points we have made. Please look at this in the autumn. When we look at the budget, the finance Bill and all of the other Bills let us make sure there is not undue consequence.
This is a vital issue. The amendment I tabled was simply looking at the question that when a place is being refurbished it should not in itself become a loophole to allow people to be evicted. There is already provision whereby somebody who has to move out for a few months while a place is being refurbished can be offered a new tenancy. Anybody in Dublin will tell us, and I am sure it is the same in Galway and Cork, that this is being used as a way of getting around the rental pressure zones because it can be treated as a new tenancy and the landlord can start from scratch in terms of where the rent goes. We looked for this in respect of the refurbishment grants and it will become much more pressing in terms of the urgent need for work on retrofitting. It will be a terrible disaster if a very positive thing, which is the retrofitting of homes, were to become a loophole to allow people to be evicted and, when the place goes up for rent again, not being offered a tenancy at an equivalent rate.
What we are suggesting is that where there is a rental pressure zone and the Government has set a threshold of a 4% increase allowed in any year, if a tenant is asked to leave and a place is refurbished or retrofitted, or whatever it might be, and the place goes on the market again that the original tenants would not simply be allowed to reapply for the tenancy but that they would be allowed to reapply for tenancy in a way consistent with the logic of the rental pressure zones.
The Minister of State mentioned cross-party work. There is huge wisdom in this House and in the other House, among all of those who worked in local authorities before they came in here, on what is actually happening with regard to the loopholes in rental pressure zones and how the table is misused for this purpose. This is an issue that has been raised by Threshold and others. Perhaps it is an issue we can look at in future.

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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