Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-12
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Cathal Byrne (FG), Cultural and Educational Panel

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this very important debate. First and foremost, we have to recognise the important contribution the private rental sector makes in providing accommodation right across the country, whether to people who have moved out of their house for the first time or people who are moving for study or work purposes. One of the most common experiences people have when they start out at third level college is moving out of their parents' home and into a rented house. It is important that any legislative framework we introduce in this Chamber recognises that landlords have an important role to play in providing accommodation up and down the country. It is also important that any measure that comes in does not reduce the supply of private rented houses. First and foremost in this legislation is the need to find that balance between the competing rights of tenants and landlords.
We must have a functioning private rental market to ensure that people who want to avail of accommodation are in a position to do so. I understand that the Department is conducting a review into the current HAP rates. It is very important that the review is fast-tracked, made available and published so that people who find themselves on the housing lists but who are not yet able to access a social house have the ability to go into the private rental market with adequate resources backed by the State. It is also very important that the HAP rates reflect the real-world lived experiences of people who are looking for private rented accommodation.
I believe balanced legislation has been achieved. First, it recognises the fact that we need private landlords. Second, tenants require security of tenure. Tenants need to know that once they actually get a house for themselves that it can be their home for a continuous period and there is an end to the day-to-day cycle where tenants wonder whether they will be issued with a notice of quit this week, next week or in a few months' time. We must acknowledge that this legislation contains a provision for a six-year continuous security of tenure for tenants who have availed of private rental accommodation. That was not the case previously. An important reform is how this legislation strikes a balance by allowing the resetting of market rents and caps the increase in average rents year-to-year at 2%. There are constitutional concerns about private property rights, ownership and obligations if that balance did not exist. In fairness to the Ministers, they have produced balanced legislation.
For a few moments, I will address some of the contributions made by the Opposition, who want to completely eliminate the private rental sector by withdrawing all supports. They have produced a model whereby schemes that help people to purchase their first house, like the help-to-buy and first home schemes, will be phased out and eliminated in the alternative budget put forward for housing by Sinn Féin. We must be serious about this issue because at the moment, across the country about 100 houses are being built every single day. Is that enough? No, but clear and tangible progress is being made. I believe that the reforms that have been brought forward, and will soon see, will increase that figure yet again. At the moment about 600 first-time buyers every week up and down the country are purchasing their first home. Many of them do so using the supports available through the help-to-buy scheme, which gives people back the taxes that they have paid over the past four years. This is a scheme that the Opposition proposes to withdraw. They would remove the safety blanket and existing security that supports people to purchase their first homes. I cannot understand how anybody would say no to a scheme that supports people to get a deposit together.
I will conclude by saying that it is important that we have robust debates on this legislation but, in this instance, the balance has been struck and the legislation should go forward.

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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