Local TD says Residential Tenancies Bill ‘fails to protect majority of tenants’ from unfair evictions, unaffordable rents and 8% rent increases

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett has said that the government’s Residential Tenancies Bill, which is being debated in the Dáil today, “fails utterly to protect majority of tenants from unfair evictions and unaffordable rents and the likelihood of 8% rent increases, following the lifting of blanket ban on rent increases.”

The Dún Laoghaire TD said that “the government need to ban no fault evictions and should provide real protections for tenants and introduce serious rent controls.

“At an absolute minimum there needed to be an immediate freeze on any rent increases, given the current obscene level of rents.”

He outlined a number of cohorts that would not be protected through this legislation, including residents of St Helen’s Court in his constituency currently facing eviction at the hands of a vulture fund, renters facing a potential 8% rent increase and many tens of thousands of renters paying obscene levels of rent and constant insecurity that their landlord might evict them on grounds of sale or other grounds that allow “no fault” evictions in current residential tenancies legislation.

Deputy Boyd Barrett says he will introduce a number of amendments to the governments Residential Tenancies Bill in the Dáil today in an effort to provide protection for all renters from evictions and further rent increases.

He said: “This legislation utterly fails to protect the vast majority of renters and people who are now facing the chilling prospect of being evicted following the recent lifting of the rent freeze and evictions ban.

“People, such as those in St Helen’s Court apartment complex in my constituency are facing eviction through no fault of their own. These are families, elderly people, children and people living with a disability who are not protected by this legislation and are facing being chucked out on the street by a ruthless vulture fund motivated only by the desire to make profit.”

“Similarly, renters out there are facing the prospect of being landed with an 8% rent increase following the lifting of the freeze on rents – this on top of the already obscene unaffordable level of rents in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford and elsewhere.

“These people are not going to be protected by this Bill when they urgently need protection and rents that are actually affordable.

“Rents are already absolutely astronomical and unaffordable. An 8% increase on already unaffordable rent is just not sustainable for renters.

“What the government must do, as a matter of urgency, is to ban no fault evictions, provide real rent controls and introduce serious protections for renters.”