Residential tenancy concerns
Senator McDowell seconded the amendment to slow the Residential Tenancies Bill, warning it would shrink rental supply and worsen homelessness. He also used the exchange to stress that special schools face absurdly high insurance costs and that civil liability reform is needed.
I second Senator Craughwell's proposed amendment to the Order of Business. The Bill that was debated on Second Stage last night is full of implications for the future of the private rented sector in terms of people who cannot afford to purchase homes for themselves. We cannot delude ourselves but that many of the measures in the Bill are going to reduce further the amount of rental accommodation because landlords are going to say it is simply not worth it anymore. I will give one example of an email that was sent to this House today from a man and woman who jointly own a house which was let to people from Latvia or Estonia, I cannot remember which, who gave up their tenancy and who had been paying a moderate rent for their family home. The couple are now being told that if they let the house at the market rent today they will be committing a criminal offence because the Bill will criminalise anybody who does not go back to a below market rent.
Comment on this
Anybody who thinks it would be a feather in the Government’s cap to rush through the Bill should look around a few corners. The situation is serious. We are going to make the homelessness crisis in Dublin worse with this legislation. We are not thinking through the implications of what we are doing.
Following on from what Senator Hopkins said, we must do something about insurance. Based on the figures she gave us, it will cost €1,000 per pupil to insure a special needs school. Either something is completely wrong with our civil liability law, insurance, the legal system or whatever else, but that cannot be defended. It is only one instance of spiralling insurance costs. Something must be done to address it. We have had all the commissions and inquiries. We have had all the fingers pointed by one interest group at another saying it is to blame, but the Government must now grasp this nettle and do something about it. We cannot have a school driven out of existence by putting a €1,000 levy on every single pupil who attends a special needs school.