Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-12 ============================================================ Joe Flaherty (FF), Nominated by the Taoiseach I commend the Minister on his great efforts on this Bill and his wholehearted determination to resolve the housing crisis. I am struck by a couple of points. A statistic I heard yesterday was that over the past ten years, we have built 220,000 houses in this country. That is the equivalent of rebuilding Galway, Limerick and Cork. That is phenomenal output over a ten-year period. We accept that the right to a house is a basic and fundamental right. No party has ever been more earnest in the delivery of housing than Fianna Fáil. Our greatest critic and the party that has sought to weaponise and make the core principal issue of housing a political issue is Sinn Féin, the party that will always criticise regardless of which new initiative we bring in. We brought in croí conaithe, which is one of the most successful housing initiatives of our time, and the help to buy initiative, which was equally successful. Both of them were condemned by Sinn Féin yet both have been critical in delivering new housing. It is notable that despite Sinn Féin being severely critical of this very significant legislation in its sound bites, only one of its Members is here to listen to the Minister. I must correct myself; Senator Andrews has joined us. The reinforcements have arrived. I commend the Minister on the work he is doing. This is hugely important because the current system, as he rightly said, is not working. We need a viable rental sector because of a lack of supply of suitable rental accommodation. We need reform in this sector. These reforms will provide greater certainty to renters and make the sector more attractive in order to increase the number of rental homes we need. The Minister has acted decisively since he came into office. Here again, he is acting decisively to shield tenants from higher market rents. This is why we are introducing for the first time in this State a national system of rent control, which is significant. The first time Fianna Fáil came to power in this country was in the 1930s and immediately we launched what was probably the most seismic housebuilding project across Europe at that time. We took people out of what were literally slums in Dublin city and in provincial towns right across the country and built a whole raft of housing estates right across Ireland. Many people of a certain vintage will still remember that, which is why they feel confident that Fianna Fáil will be the party that will turn the tide on this housing crisis. This Bill will significantly restrict no-fault evictions. These changes will further enhance the current provision of tenancies of unlimited duration with the introduction of rolling tenancies of a minimum duration of six years. Tenants in Ireland will soon have the most robust set of protections they have ever had. Tenants entering into a tenancy with larger landlords from 1 March 2026 will no longer face no-fault evictions while tenants entering into a tenancy with smaller landlords, that is, landlords with three or fewer tenancies, will also benefit from substantially improved tenancy protections. We also want to grow the supply of rental homes available, attract more landlords and retain existing landlords in the market. Providing the policy conditions for a sustained increase in supply is essential because it will help ease price pressures across the rental market and will widen the pool of available rental properties. These new measures provide for a simplified national rent control system that will apply to all tenancies. Landlords will be able to reset rents to market rate between tenancies, a change that is viewed as critical to retaining existing landlords and attracting new investment into this critical sector. Rent increases in new apartments will be solely linked to inflation to provide certainty and clarity and encourage investment. This measure will help us to significantly increase the number of rental properties available. Some people may indeed benefit from the current system and naturally be resistant to change but for most people, the current system is simply not working for renters or potential new landlords. Doing nothing is simply not an option and that was made clear by the Housing Agency report. Changes need to be made to provide for a national rent control to replace RPZ, tenants need to be protected and the sector needs certainty. The changes the Government is proposing today will provide significantly stronger protections for tenants and are finally balanced between the interests of tenants and the need for future private investment in the private market. I am more than happy to see this legislation before the House. It is very timely and offers great support for the rental market. We appreciate the challenges this market faces but it will also be critical in attracting new investment into this critical market. Our most vociferous critic is, of course, Sinn Féin, which tells us that it will build left, right and centre. However, if we are looking for a timely example of what Sinn Féin can build, we only have to look at 2023 in Northern Ireland, a place where it does have an input into power. It built 5,380 houses in 2023. It was a low point - the lowest point in housebuilding and house delivery in Northern Ireland in 60 years. I will leave it on that note. This is the party that is going to turn around housing when it could only build under 6,000 houses in 2023 at a time countries across Europe were in the midst of a building boom. At that time, all Sinn Féin could build was just under 6,000 houses. --- 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/2026-02-12/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:37+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-12