Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Committee Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-18 ============================================================ Chris Andrews (SF), Labour Panel In reference to the research carried out over two years, I ask that it be published so that people can see it and make their own minds up, rather than having to take the Government's word for it. I hear the Government talking about how it is committed to protecting tenants’ security in their tenancy. I have to question that because, when we look at the tenant in situ scheme, it was a scheme that gave people some bit of security. People renting in the private sector are waiting for the notice to quit. As I mentioned earlier, the average lease time is three or three and a half years, so people are waiting for the notice to quit. The tenant in situ scheme was giving people a little bit of security. It obviously was not going to work for everybody, but it was going to work for a lot of people. I know one person renting in the private rental sector who received three different notices to quit during their time in private tenancy. That person has had to up sticks and leave their tenancy, their HAP property, on three separate occasions. The first and second occasions were very close together. That person dreads receiving a notice to quit. They are waiting to get on the social housing list, but that can take ten or 11 years. In area M in this area, there are more than 1,000 people on the waiting list for a one-bedroom property. That is the housing list for one very small area. The tenant in situ scheme was giving people some security but the Government has deconstructed it to almost nothing. Dublin City Council has very few tenant in situ applications. It is dealing with that. The tenant in situ scheme was going to allow persons to live in the home they had been renting up to then, and the council was obviously going to take it on, but that was effectively scrapped by the Government while people were midway through their applications. When the Government says it is concerned about the welfare of renters, it rings a bit hollow when we know that the same Government effectively got rid of the tenant in situ scheme. We hear talk about protecting tenants. Again, I go back to the fact that many tenants cannot afford to pay the rents. It is all very well having security of tenure and no-fault evictions, but if a person cannot afford the rent, it does not really matter what we have. It is like the difference between theory and practice. I ask that the Minister of State consider publishing the research and findings the Department has which allow him make a call that rent is not going to go up to €3,500 per year and €5,000 per year in Galway. I would appreciate it if the Minister of State could respond on that. --- 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