An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2023-05-04
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Catherine Ardagh (FF), Industrial and Commercial Panel

I also want to mention the auto-enrolment scheme. When the Deputy Leader was Minister for Social Protection it was something she was working on. Ultimately 750,000 are possibly holding off getting a private pension because they are waiting on the auto-enrolment scheme. It is great to see the Oireachtas committee working on it but we have been waiting on it a long time. I hope that finally there is a good push to ensure that it is brought in without delay, as soon as possible.
I was very disappointed to read a report that experts are advising people who are in nursing homes not to rent out their homes. The Government has given fantastic income tax exemptions for people who do rent out their home. The issue here, and we have to stand up to it, is the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB. It is not acting fast enough in legitimate situations where people are over-holding. It is an issue. People are looking at this when they or their parents are going into nursing homes. It is important that we get it right. The vast majority of people going into nursing homes are not renting out their homes. Any negativity in respect of this will reduce the supply. We need to face up to the challenges as to why people are not doing this. Some of it lies at the feet of the RTB. It may need a lot more resources but at the moment it is not working efficiently. It is not supporting people who are trying to increase the supply in the market.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2023-05-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2023-05-04