2026-05-06

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to make exceptional provision in the public interest for the prohibition of certain termination notices under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 during the period of 3 years following the enactment of this Act, and to provide for related matters. I introduce this Bill because we are in a housing and eviction emergency. Figures published by the RTB show that the number of terminations rose by 41% in the last three months of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024 and that there was a 21% increase for the year as a whole compared with the previous year. I introduce this Bill in the context of a housing market where rent has increased by more than 100% in the past ten years and by 50% since the onset of the Covid pandemic six years ago. Exceptional times call for exceptional measures in the public interest. I believe these are needed to respond to the current dysfunctional nature of the residential tenancy market, much of which is a response to repeated legislative interventions that have been poorly designed and implemented. Since I was elected in November 2024, homelessness has risen from over 15,000 to 17,500 in March 2026, the highest figure ever recorded. This Bill seeks to give renters certainty over the medium term and give them breathing space from the daily fear of a notice of termination coming through the door. Since this Government has not met its own housing targets, it should at the very least do whatever it can to remove the fear of homelessness from renters, the most vulnerable people in the housing system. This Bill seeks a temporary moratorium on no-fault evictions to protect renters who, through no fault of their own, are being forced into a brutal housing market. It is for renters such as those in Hazelwood estate, Wexford, where 37 households were initially given notices to terminate with little warning as the company that owned them wanted to sell. It is for renters in Ballybane, Galway, and renters in my constituency of Limerick city. This Bill seeks to protect renters from having to look again for HAP accommodation, which is an uphill battle at the moment with a recent Simon Communities report saying that in 16 areas surveyed, there were only 14 properties available, and none in my constituency. This Bill seeks to protect the more than 80% of renters who were following their obligations in the final three months of the year but who, according to RTB data, were still given notices of termination. This is well past the point of an emergency. The fact is there is no acceptable rate of homelessness. We have a situation in this country where the homeless figures are at record highs every single month of the year and have effectively become wallpaper. This is not acceptable. It should not be considered so, and it should not be considered normal. Homeless figures continue to surge again and again, as they did under the previous Government. This Bill does not seek to reinvent the wheel. It is extending a ban on no-fault evictions that was in place during the Covid emergency and should be used again in this emergency. If this Government does not consider nearly 5,500 children in emergency accommodation to be an emergency, then what number of children in emergency accommodation counts as an emergency? This Bill seeks to give protections to renters who are following their rental obligations, to give them certainty for three years and give them an assurance that they will not be forced into homelessness, giving renters time until supply starts to improve and to give some breathing space. This Government needs to take stronger action on homelessness because we are at a stage where homelessness has almost become acceptable, and this Bill goes some of the way to achieving that.

Is the Bill opposed?

No.

Since this is a Private Members' Bill, Second Stage must, under Standing Orders, be taken in Private Members' time.

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."