Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Committee Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-18 ============================================================ Maria McCormack (SF), Labour Panel I will keep it to the amendments we are discussing at the moment. We do not agree with this legislation. We do not agree with something that will bring up the price of rent for people who are already to the pin of their collar. When we discussed this legislation at the housing committee, even when we had the experts in, a large number of typos had to be corrected. It was described as the most confusing legislation to have come before us. There are so many different categories of rent for so many different people. If the experts cannot understand it, how are we supposed to understand it and how is the regular renter out there supposed to understand it? I hear an awful lot about the security of tenure and that people will have security of tenure for six years, but I just cannot get my head around how that will work when people just cannot afford the rent. The facts are there that normal tenancies are only lasting three and a half years, so it will be reset every time someone moves out and really this six years provision does not matter a damn. I am bearing in mind that the Government has the majority and the Bill will get pushed through but our amendments are just asking for reports. I really cannot understand how it would not be acceptable. Amendment No. 1 states: Within three months of passing of this Act, the Minister shall lay before the Houses of the Oireachtas a report setting out the impact of the "market rent reset provision" contained in section 8 on rental inflation in the private rental sector. I cannot understand what would be wrong with agreeing to show us a review of this. Amendment No. 2 states: Within three months of the passing of this Act the Minister shall lay before the Houses of the Oireachtas a report setting out the impact of this Act on rental inflation for student renters in both the private and rental sector and the Student Specific Accommodation sector. We are just asking for reports. We feel that this is being pushed through and we are listening to people on the ground telling us the impact it is going to have. We just want to make sure that there are options for this to be reviewed, for reports to be generated and for us to be able to discuss the impact this is having on people. For people in Laois, rents are possibly going to go up by €3,100 a year. We know that people absolutely cannot afford it. Anyone going to third-level education has to leave the county. For 90% of the time students are not getting a six-year secure tenancy. We know how much these young people are going to suffer. We know how many of them need to emigrate because they cannot afford to rent or buy a house here. We are simply asking that there would be some review mechanism for the damage this is doing because big landlords benefiting from this will not sit well with the general public. We have seen all of the rent organisations come out against this Bill and tell us how concerned they are. We have seen the Simon Communities in Ireland come out and tell us of the detrimental impact this will have. We know the homeless figures are going up and up. They say the higher the rents are, the more impact they will have, with more homelessness and more women and children in homeless hubs. We do not have enough facilities for them. We do not have enough social and affordable homes. We know there are better options. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin has brought forward lots of detailed plans, including 114 pages of a housing plan that details and sets out ways to improve the housing crisis. It was said in this Chamber last week that Sinn Féin does not have ideas. There are lots and lots of ideas being put forward by the Opposition and every time they are put forward they are just put back. Even when we have simple amendments just asking for collaboration to please generate a simple report to share with the public on the impact this will have on the rental market, even that cannot even be accepted. I do not know; I am running out of words. I understand this is not the Minister of State's brief but I hope he can give me some kind of a clear answer as to why the hell a report could not be generated and why those amendments could not be accepted. We could have come in with many more amendments. People in County Laois will suffer much more from rent reset to market values. We do not pay anything near the market value in a lot of cases because we do not have a lot of apartment blocks. We have a lot of rentals in the second hand sector. A tenant may be paying an historical rent of €900 but from 1 March, that rent will just shoot through the roof. Those people are really worried. I cannot keep up with the demand and the number of calls coming into my office and I do not know what to say to them. The rent will go up and there is the food poverty. I attended a meeting of the social protection committee this morning and listened to statements from MABS and the Citizens Information Board. There is poverty and increasing numbers of people are coming in to them with cost-of-living and energy poverty queries. There are millions. They do not know what to do. This is having an impact and 20% of their overall calls are from people who are distressed. I asked what was the main reason people are distressed and they replied it was due to the cost of living. People are terrified. I hope we can get some answers because they are watching. They are looking to see leadership here and for some kind of answers that will speak to the real people, the people who cannot afford to heat their houses or pay their rent or electricity bills. An electrician rang me when I was on my way here this morning and told me that the roll of wire with which he is going to wire houses - it might take him 40 rolls of this wire to wire a house - used to cost €120 but now costs €240. We are dealing with levels of inflation. This does not relate directly to housing but everybody is absolutely stretched. I would love for there to be a way this Bill could be paused and that we could go back to the drawing board and think about the impact it is having. I acknowledge that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael want to make a difference and help renters and I do not stand in this Chamber and give out for no reason but I have been listening day after day to people telling me about the fear they have about this and I am really worried. I have no answers for them except to say I am sorry but they are being thrown under the bus with this legislation because I cannot say that their rent is not going to go up. Someone who is struggling really cannot afford that extra €1,000, €2,000, €3,000 or €4,000. --- 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/2026-02-18/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:39+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-18