Housing and Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Report and Final Stages
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-08
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James Browne (FF), Wexford

We are not talking about stand-alone properties. These properties are on the land and the curtilage of the homeowner. The renter shares all the services with the homeowner, including the driveway and the water and electricity facilities coming in. We already do this with the rent-a-room scheme. People can rent a room under licence in a homeowner's property. The residences we are discussing will likewise be on a homeowner's property. Such a building is considered an extension, albeit a detached one. It does not have its own folio, does not count towards housing numbers and cannot be sold separately. It is part of the main homeowner's property.
Where a principal private resident avails of this exemption, constructs a detached auxiliary dwelling within an existing residential curtilage and rents it out, that arrangement will have to be outside of the remit of the Residential Tenancies Act. We cannot have homeowners in that situation, who may be elderly people and so on who cannot sell their home, subject to that type of obligation. I acknowledge it is a difficult situation but when we examine it, the idea that someone renting out a property on the wider property of a homeowner is renting a completely separate dwelling governed by the Residential Tenancies Act is completely unworkable and unmanageable. Homeowners would entirely lose control of their own home, their right to which is protected under the Constitution. That is the reality of the situation. These properties are built and have to be built to the highest standards. Building regulation compliance is not simply about when something is built; it is also about maintenance as well. Licensing is always kept under review but I take Deputy Sheehan's point in that regard.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-08/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-08