I welcome the Bill. As Chair of the housing committee, I am disappointed that some of the cross-party recommendations that were put forward by the committee have not been included in the Bill. The Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2026, which came in on 1 March of this year and which I supported, is about giving certainty to tenancies but it is also about creating an environment where we will see further investment in the market to try to unlock all those tens of thousands of planning permissions for apartments that have not been built and ultimately provide new housing units. Deputy Stanley made a point with regard to that Bill. This is something I have said publicly as Chair of the committee as well. As a committee we will be looking at the Act after 12 months. I have always believed this will take a number of months to settle but in the long term, it is the right thing to do. As a committee, we will be looking at the effects of it and the figures after 12 months. The Bill is about creating statutory arrangements for residential requirements, eligibility for social housing and including a new habitual residency requirement. There is also a number of other technical amendments. These legislative reforms build on the existing policy and procedures that define social housing as a long-term housing support. The legislation sets out residents' requirements for Irish, UK, EU, EEA and non-EU-EEA applicants. It also adds a new requirement that applicants be habitually resident in the State. The addition of that requirement is consistent with the approach taken by social protection legislation. It is considered appropriate to ensure social housing support recipients are, in fact, resident in the State. We discussed with Department officials the need for a provision, which was included in previous programmes for Government, to ensure this requirement does not mean returning Irish emigrants are at a disadvantage. People who hold Irish passports, if they have gone abroad for work purposes or whatever it might be, are still Irish citizens when they return to this country and should be entitled to the same rights as those who remain here. The Bill puts in place a new statutory appeals mechanism in respect of local authority decisions relating to housing eligibility and assessment in general. Detailed provisions are set out in regard to this mechanism, stipulating that each local authority will appoint an appeals officer to decide on cases and ensure they are fully independent. It is important that these appeals officers are based within every local authority rather than at a national level. There is a streamlining of enforcement of RTB determination orders through the courts, allowing Garda members and housing authority officials, if required, to give evidence in RTB cases. The RTB is empowered to issue 28-day fixed payment notices for certain offences, to hold hearings in the context of an adjudication tribunal and to sanction cases to be held in public. This is about giving more certainty for both tenants and landlords. An issue that is not dealt with in the legislation is where a person from my county of Longford, for example, who moved to Dublin and was on a housing list there for X number of years without being allocated a house now wants to move back to Longford. The period in which people are on a housing list in another county should be taken into account when they move back to their home county. Will the Minister of State ask his officials to look at that issue? It is only right that people who return to their home county having not been made a housing offer in the county where they had been living should not go back to day one. The length of time they were on the housing list in the other county should be taken into account. The legislation introduces requirements on landlords in respect of the RTB. The State, through our local authorities, is a landlord with a large number of tenancies. If we are putting in place strict requirements for private landlords, the State must likewise ensure it provides housing that is to a proper standard, including safety standard, for local authority tenants. Committee colleagues and I visited the Oliver Bond flats this morning to meet with residents. I ask that their situation be looked at again. The proposals put forward by Dublin City Council, which is the local housing authority, should be reviewed in terms of what is right for the residents. It is about building communities and homes for families, not units. Going out and seeing what is being proposed locally is the right thing to do. It is incumbent on the Government and the Department to put strong measures in place to support families in the same way we ask landlords to support their tenants. I fully support the Bill. It is the right measure to create certainty for tenants into the future. It will bring in investment. I ask that consideration be given to ensuring returning Irish emigrants have certainty that they will have entitlement straight away and not have to prove it. If people are Irish citizens, they should not have to do anything else at all to secure that entitlement. I also ask that where people spend time on a housing list in another county and then return to their home county, the time spent on the list is carried forward with them. I refer only to the particular circumstance where someone is returning to his or her home county.

Sentiment score: 0.20