Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Committee Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-18 ============================================================ Patricia Stephenson (SD), Labour Panel I echo what Senator Cosgrove just said. There is an opportunity to not guillotine the debate tomorrow and it would be fantastic if that opportunity was taken. Senator Harmon talked about the terminology of landlords being outdated. While I wish that were true and I wish it were archaic, the reality is it is not. There were 5,000 eviction notices issued in the past three months. It is almost like we are approaching Famine-level evictions in Ireland and, like the Famine, these evictions are based on economic reasons because people cannot afford rent. We will see that soar in this context. We had evictions in Kilkenny this week and in Waterford. It is so evocative and painful for people that there are community members getting out on the streets, trying to defend their neighbour who, through no fault of their own, cannot pay rent. When we talk about homelessness, and we have these endless figures increasing month after month, it is heartbreaking and can be difficult. The more the figures increase, the less human it becomes, and it is more about numbers. We put less of a face on it. Since it was pancake Tuesday yesterday, it reminded me of that. I recently spoke to a mother who is living in homeless accommodation. She told me that the most heartbreaking thing for her is when she is talking to her child about their whole situation. They have been there for months and there is no pathway out for them. There is nowhere to go, so they are living in emergency accommodation. Her child asked, "Can we have pancakes today?" All that is required to make pancakes is milk, flour and eggs. It is the simplest thing; cheap as chips. However, she cannot do that for her daughter because she does not have a hob, a fridge or access to cooking facilities. Many families would not have had pancakes. We all had our pancakes down in the canteen. They did not have pancakes yesterday, Pancake Tuesday. It was not available because she could not do the simplest thing. What a small gesture for a child any day of the week. It does not need to be Pancake Tuesday to be able to provide that. We do not see this Bill bringing those people out of homelessness. It will increase supply, but we do not see it driving down rents or providing more affordable accommodation where people can live. That is the challenge for us. We do not see it stopping evictions, which are increasing. We do not see it stopping the rise in the number of homeless people. It would be great for the Minister of State to be able to tell us what will happen. I appreciate that we have been putting up our hands to speak and that he has not yet had the opportunity to come back in. These are the things in respect of which we want answers, because it is hard for us when we strongly believe that the legislation will not fix those things. It will not put mothers back in their homes with their children in order that they can make pancakes. It will not stop people from having to go out on the street to stop their neighbours being evicted. We all appreciate that this is so real for many people. We all receive representations all the time. It is the most heartbreaking thing. People come to us, as representatives, and ask if we can help them with finding somewhere to live or getting out of emergency accommodation, but we cannot do anything. The local authorities are struggling to meet the demand. Senator Cosgrove laid it out beautifully. We believe that the incentive behind this legislation is coming from private investors and is not being driven by affordable housing demand. That is the issue. We are seeing the kind of colonial tenant class and landlord class that are so etched into our history being played out in modern Ireland, and that is dark and bleak. If it goes on like this, we will be in an even worse situation, if people can imagine that, than we are today. Some of the amendments are mitigating efforts to try to make the Bill a little more realistic and a bit more manageable. Perhaps we will have time to speak about them today and tomorrow. --- 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