Housing and Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-09 ============================================================ James Browne (FF), Wexford I am pleased to bring the Housing and Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026 before the House. This Bill is structured in five Parts. Part 2 deals with amendments to the Housing Act 1988, while Part 3 deals with amendments to the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 around the eligibility for social housing. Part 4 deals with amendments to the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014, while Part 5 deals with a number of amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act 2004. Amendments to the homelessness-related provisions in the 1988 Act have been brought forward in the context of the considerable changes in the nature of homelessness that have occurred since the Housing Act 1988 was enacted and will provide greater clarity on the issue of eligibility for homeless services and expand the powers of local authorities to withdraw the provision of homeless accommodation in limited circumstances. The amendments also update the 1988 Act with regard to the recognition of children. Part 3 inserts two new sections into the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009. The first inserts a new section 20A that puts on a statutory footing residency requirements for social housing eligibility. The second inserts a new section 20B that provides for a new statutory appeals process for decisions relating to eligibility for social housing, including those relating to residency. There is currently no provision in the Housing Acts requiring residency as an eligibility criteria for social housing support. The policy and guidance on this matter are provided in Department Circular 41/12. This Bill will put these eligibility requirements for accessing social housing supports on a statutory footing by amending the relevant provisions of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 consistent with the existing policy included in the relevant circular. The Bill introduces clear legal requirements that all applicants must be lawfully resident and be habitually resident in the State. These legislative reforms are building on existing policy and procedures which, in the first instance, define social housing as a long-term housing support and, therefore, successful applicants must be in a position to demonstrate that they have a long-term entitlement to reside in the State, that is, that their permission to reside here is not temporary or short term. I will now outline the broad thrust of the Bill. The Bill contains five Parts comprising 61 sections. Part 1 contains the standard preliminary and general provisions, Part 2 relates to amendments to the Housing Act 1988, Part 3 relates to amendments to the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, Part 4 relates to amendments to the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014, and Part 5 relates to amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act 2004. Part 2, which amends the Housing Act 1988, comprises sections 4 to 7, inclusive, which deal with homelessness-related amendments to the Housing Act 1988. Sections 4 and 5 are technical amendments to the 1988 Act to accommodate these policy changes, while sections 6 and 7, respectively, amend section 10 of the 1988 Act and add two new sections to that Act in order to implement the policy changes mentioned earlier. In line with amendments to eligibility for social housing support, lawful residency and habitual residency as eligibility criteria for accessing homeless supports are being put on a statutory footing. This will ensure that the State is operating a harmonised and consistent approach to the provision of social entitlements in general. These eligibility criteria specifically relate to an individual’s connection to the State and not to the individual’s established connection to a specific local authority. Until such time as a definitive determination on eligibility has been made and any appeal of that determination has been concluded, a local authority may provide homeless supports and accommodation under section 10(1) in the normal course to the person. To guard against an increase in rough sleeping, a safety net service has been introduced to allow local authorities to provide emergency accommodation to a person deemed ineligible for homeless supports and services. Provision of this service is confined to circumstances in which a person has received a determination from a local authority that he or she is ineligible for homeless supports by virtue of his or her residency status. This safety net provision is to be provided by the local authority on a night-to-night basis. This is to allow local authorities to reassess the circumstances each day to determine that the safety net should still be provided. The safety net will be provided in circumstances where a household is ineligible and that household is seeking alternative assistance or accommodation but does not have such available. The local authority can continue to provide the safety net service for as long as those circumstances exist. The inclusion of the specific hours of 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. rather than referring to singular nights of accommodation is to make it clear that the sleeping hours provision should be available all year round and should not be curtailed in the summer months where night could be interpreted as a shorter period. Clear guidance will be provided to local authorities to ensure that this provision is applied as the minimum statutory requirement. This change to the set time period is on the advice of the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, OPC. The circumstances in which local authorities can withdraw the provision of homeless accommodation will be expanded to include the refusal of a reasonable offer of social housing made by a local authority and circumstances where a person engages in behaviour causing, or intended to cause, serious harm or death to another user or staff member of the emergency accommodation. With regard to the first of these circumstances, a reasonable offer of social housing is the pathway out of homeless accommodation and this measure is being introduced to ensure that no individual or family will remain in homeless accommodation any longer than is absolutely necessary. With regard to the second of these circumstances, the measure is being introduced to ensure the protection of the health and safety of users and staff of homeless accommodation. A definition of the term “serious harm” has been introduced for the purpose of implementing this measure. Given the gravity of a decision to withdraw the provision of homeless accommodation, it is considered essential that a mechanism to appeal such a decision be provided for. Consequently, a further amendment will introduce a mechanism of appeal against decisions made by local authorities in relation to the withdrawal of the provision of homeless accommodation. The insertion of a new subsection (12) to section 10 of the 1988 Act introduces an obligation on local authorities to have regard to the best interests of children when making decisions on the available accommodation to be provided to a family with children who have been assessed as homeless. As a complement to this measure, an amendment to section 38(8) of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 will include the Child and Family Agency as a mandatory member of each joint homelessness consultative forum across the country. A definition of a “child” as a person under the age of 18 years has been added to the 1988 Act. Section 20B provides for the appeal of social housing assessment decisions by housing authority decision makers. A household may make an appeal against a determination made by a housing authority that the household is not qualified, no longer qualified, or a particular form of social housing support is the appropriate form of support. Section 4 deals with the grounds for appeal on the decision relating to eligibility. Section 5 deals with the form of support, while sections 6, 7 and 8 provide for how an appeal is made. Sections 9, 10 and 11 provide for provisions related to the appeals officer and the duties and obligations placed on them. Part 5 of the Bill technically amends the Residential Tenancies Act, RTA, 2004 to 2026 to enhance its implementation and the outcomes thereunder, with greater efficiencies for stakeholders including the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, and the courts. The key provisions of Part 5 are to increase the penalties for an offence under the RTA and extend the timeframe to institute a prosecution from one year to three years after the date of the offence; streamline the court enforcement of RTB determination orders; provide for the modification of the use of the “slip rule” and remedial notice of termination provisions; and empower the RTB to enter into and inspect a premises, including a private dwelling, for the purposes of ascertaining details of a rented dwelling, the registration requirements, the particulars to be specified in any registration application or the correctness of any particular specified in an application. Part 5 will also allow members of An Garda Síochána and officers of a housing authority, if required, to provide evidence in certain RTB dispute resolution cases, for example, where antisocial behaviour arises or there is danger posed to a dwelling, and it will empower the RTB to issue a warning notice and 28-day fixed payment notices for certain offences to provide the opportunity for the offender to avoid prosecution and to speed up compliance with the RTA. Part 5 will clearly provide for public RTB hearings in the context of adjudication, tribunal and sanctioning cases and disapply the RTA with respect to detached auxiliary dwellings that are developed as exempted development under forthcoming amendments to the planning and development regulations 2001. I commend this Bill to the House. --- 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/2026-07-09/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:11+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-09