Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-19
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Aubrey McCarthy (IND), University of Dublin

I am disappointed that the amendments are not being accepted. I felt that the one I proposed was simple. I thought it was an essential addition to the Bill that within two years of the commencement of the Act, the Minister would publish a report examining the impact on the rental market, and that the report would then be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas. I did not think it was a radical request. The Minister knows that I do not want to be obstructive but I just thought it was good governance. When we pass legislation that affects hundreds of thousands of tenants and landlords and when we intervene in a market that is already under enormous strain we have a responsibility to ensure that our actions have the intended effect. That is basically what I want to do there.
We have been here before. Yesterday, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, said we need a reset and a fix. That is why I think a few things need to be done in order for this to be a fix. We have already been here before. We introduced layer upon layer of legislation in the rental sector and it has not worked. Some of it has been necessary and was overdue and it has been well intentioned but a lot of it was poorly evaluated. What we have not done in any meaningful or systematic way is to look back and then ask if it worked, if it helped and if it made things better or worse.
If we look at the number of people in emergency accommodation – 17,000 people – we can see we are going in the right direction. The homeless figure is shocking in itself but it does not capture the full reality. There are thousands more people whom we call the hidden homeless, that is, people who couch-surf or stay with family and move into spare rooms, who never appear in the monthly statistics. They are not counted, but they are living with the same insecurity as anybody that is a statistic who has been mentioned, and they are living with the same fear and exhaustion.
Alongside that, we have a rental market that all of us agree is dysfunctional. As Senator Andrews said, the rents are at an historic high and supply is at an historic low. My main business is transport. Recently I was moving an economist who was living in Spencer Dock back to Brussels because, although he was on a six-figure salary, the rent over here was far too expensive. The rent for his one-bedroom apartment in Spencer Dock – I am not talking about Mayfair in London – was €3,800 per month. It is not achievable.
Landlords are also leaving the market faster than new ones are entering. Tenants are competing. The Minister has seen on social media long queues of people looking at houses to rent. Families are being priced out of communities. I accept the Minister is trying to fix all of this, and it is a difficult fix. There was evidence yesterday that young people are staying at home longer. When I was growing up we left home at 17 or 18. Now people are living at home in their 30s. Young people are delaying milestones. They are delaying education, children, etc., because they cannot secure stable housing. Of course the Minister knows all that.
We cannot keep legislating in the dark. We cannot keep passing Bills without building mechanisms to assess their impact. That is why my amendments matter. Last week I was before the housing committee and the Department was present. We have changed the population threshold in towns, for example, for short-term letting from 10,000 to 20,000. Towns with 10,000 were exempt but now towns of 20,000 are. When I asked the Department how many houses would be released in towns with 10,000, I was told approximately 12,000. Then I asked how many houses would be released into the long-term rental market now that the threshold has been increased to 20,000 and I was told in or around 12,000. I am worried about the assessments. What is the mathematics behind it if it does not make a difference? Has it been well-thought out? The same goes for this Bill.
What my amendment did was to ask for a pause two years from now, just to honestly look back and see whether the Bill has improved the situation for tenants, stabilised the market or encouraged supply, because I know that is what the Minister wants, or if it has inadvertently pushed more landlords to exit the market. We must also find out whether it has helped to reduce the homeless numbers. That is the measurable effect that I was looking for. They are not political questions, they are practical ones.
The Minister knows that I am not only a Senator but I have spent the last 20 years working with people who have experienced homelessness. When I was younger I started to volunteer in the Cedar House Homeless Hostel just off O'Connell Street. They did fantastic work there. It was run by the Salvation Army and now it is Crosscare. I used to volunteer every Sunday. I realised that there are a lot of people in trouble with addiction and mental health who are homeless and who need supported housing. I have expressed that in here before. I bought a bus and converted it to a restaurant. I used to go out every night under Clerys clock, Monday to Thursday. I met the most amazing people. Now that service, which used to feed about 60, is feeding up to 500 a day, and we have it at The Lighthouse on Pearse Street.
We meet people who basically have slipped through the crack of the system. What I noticed in the last while is that the demographics have changed. Now we have people who are working. Last week I had a guy in who is actually working in the construction industry and, unfortunately, he cannot afford the rent so he is living in Sandymount in a tent. He comes in to us because we provide a barber and a doctor. We also provide live musical bingo, something to just take people's mind off the very fact that they are experiencing homelessness. The demographics have changed. People like him, who once had a stable tenancy and a stable life now find themselves in a difficult position, without a place to call home. I meet them every night of the week. I would love if the Minister could come down there with me one evening. When you look into the eyes of the people who come in you realise that these guys have lost a lot, and then you start to think about housing policy. This is not an abstract debate. There is human cost here. You see that in the queue outside The Lighthouse. Every decision we make here and every unintended consequence of legislation needs to be properly reviewed.
That is why I brought the amendment. It was in good faith. It was not to score political points and it was not to slow down the Minister making progress in this area, but to ensure that we learn from what we do and we are held accountable. If the enacted Bill is successful, the review I propose would show that. If it needs adjustment, then the review would give evidence to look back and say where we need to tweak it a bit. If the Bill has unintended consequences then the Minister would know early enough in two years. I urge the Minister to reconsider. He has looked at the amendment. I think it would strengthen the Bill. I want to add to the solution. I want to provide solutions. I do not want to just come against it for the sake of it. I do feel that my amendment was fair.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:39+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-19