Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-11
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Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire

The Minister and I disagree. He is absolutely right that no one has a monopoly on compassion, but I honestly believe the Government has an obligation, as do I as a representative, to say something to the family I am talking about. The Minister has a responsibility for all the families who come into him. It is just not good enough to tell people to engage with their local authorities about emergency accommodation. Does the Minister think it is? I certainly do not. I have described the situation of the couple and I could describe an endless number of other cases that are on my books at the moment and people who are coming in week in, week out. They are absolutely terrified in their situations for their children. Would the Minister allow his children to be put in a situation that would damage them? I think the Minister would do anything – in fact I do not want to personalise this, because that is wrong too. However, any parent would do absolutely anything to prevent their child being put in that sort of situation. We should not be in a situation where we have to turn around and tell people that there is nothing we can do, and that their daughter and son with special needs who are vulnerable will just have to suck it up, as they will, and will have to go into that hostel even though it will be very bad for them. I seriously worry about the mental health of the mother in particular, after the engagement I had with her, about how she will be able to cope so it is just not good enough to say that.
I hear from the Minister, as I have heard from successive Ministers, that the Government is developing policies to prevent people going into homelessness. If the Minister will not do what is in this amendment, will he please tell me what he is doing to prevent this and other families going into homelessness? Tell me. Is there another answer I am missing? Is there something I have not heard? Is there some policy the Minister is developing that will prevent this situation where the family has to end up in emergency accommodation next week? If the Minister cannot give that alternative suggestion, the best one going is the one being proposed in these amendments, which is, even on an emergency basis, to say “sorry, you will not be allowed to evict these people into homelessness". We need to freeze that possibility until we sort out this mess, which is certainly not the fault of this family or these kids. Whatever differences we have on policy and all the rest, we should say we will not put them into a worse position, an unacceptable position, until we have managed to sort out the bigger problem. That is what we are asking. Can the Minister tell me he has a better answer for them or is he just saying that he, I and Deputies Ó Broin, Sheehan and Hearne have to tell our constituents that there is nothing we can do and that at some point it might improve - we cannot say when exactly - when the investors in New York decide to reduce rents?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-11/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:02+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-11