Housing and Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-14
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Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland

I would like to have clarity on this issue, which was the subject of an amendment that was ruled out of order, unfortunately. I genuinely do not understand why this is the case. In the legislation as set out, the Minister mentioned on a number of occasions that children are excluded from the requirements. In the residency requirements section, it states that each member of the household needs to be “lawfully resident” in the State. Children are excluded from the requirement for each member of the household to be lawfully resident in the State at subsection 1(a) of the new residency requirement, but they are not excluded from subsection 1(b), which states that each member of the household needs to be “habitually resident” in the State.
Our amendment was simply trying to ensure that children would be completely included in the residency requirement. As currently set out, they are excluded from the requirement to be lawfully resident, but they are not excluded from the requirement to be habitually resident. Those are different things with different criteria attached. What is the logic to requiring that children in a household have to prove they are habitually resident in the State? I am thinking of situations where there may have been, for example, family reunification or a reconciliation with the family. It does not make sense to me. I wonder if it is perhaps a drafting error. Is there a reason for it? The Minister said on a number of occasions that children are exempted from the residency requirements, but they are only exempted from one of the residency requirements, not from the second one.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:15+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-14