Pringle: Emergency measures have saved families and individuals from homelessness
- Updated: 24th June 2021
Independent TD for Donegal, Thomas Pringle, said the new bill on residential tenancies is “piecemeal and belated”, but welcome.
The deputy said that even though evictions have been banned during the pandemic when the 5km restrictions were in place, more than 1,100 households were served with eviction notices over the past 10 months.
Deputy Pringle said: “The only reason there has been a reduction in numbers of families and individuals evicted into homelessness has been because of the emergency measures introduced because of Covid. The measures that we in opposition have been pleading for, for years now – a moratorium on rent increases, on evictions, longer notice periods – were all magically introduced in ‘unprecedented times’.”
Deputy Pringle addressed the Dáil today in support of the Residential Tenancies (No 2) Bill 2021, which extends the emergency period from July 2021 to January 2022, makes provisions for a maximum of two months’ rent to be requested as upfront payments and sets out provisions around student accommodation and notice periods.
He said that landlords have been legally allowed to evict people since April 23rd, and of the 79 families presenting to the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive in April of this year, 14 were made homeless from the private rental sector. In May 2021, notices of termination were served to 170 households, with the intention of selling the property cited as the most common reason.
The deputy said: “The written declaration for renters to access limited protection due to Covid-19 has only been accessed by 475 renters, despite nearly 4,000 renters being in financial difficulty. Why is this number so small? Do renters not know about this declaration and option? Has information been provided in a variety of languages? How are renters being informed of this protection?”
He noted that one-third of TDs in the last Dáil were landlords, and this Dáil saw a slight decrease from 33.5% down to 25% of TDs with investment properties.
Deputy Pringle asked: “So one-quarter of law-makers also accumulate money from renting properties. How many of us then are paying mortgages? How many are living mortgage free? How many are renting and how many have helped wains out with deposits for homes? How many TDs really know and understand the rental market from a tenant’s point of view? How many of us have experienced the insecurity? The fear of reporting breakages or problems in case you get hit with an eviction notice?”
The deputy said: “During the Celtic Tigers years, our housing market was described as a property bubble. A bubble which burst and left people in negative equity, homeless and in some cases taking their own lives. But the bubble lives on – the property bubble is home to Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil/the Greens/developers/REITs/vulture funds/NAMA and government policy makers.
“I find it hard to believe that any of you are living in the real world. If you were then you would see how damaging our private rental sector is,” Deputy Pringle said.
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