Opposition parties protest against Residential Tenancies Bill as Dáil debates

By Bairbre Holmes, Press Association

Opposition parties will be putting forward “a ream of amendments” to change the Residential Tenancies Bill, a protest against the legislation has heard.

Representatives for a coalition of opposition parties joined the demonstration against the Bill outside Leinster House on Wednesday evening.

Spokespeople for People Before Profit, Sinn Féin, Social Democrats and the Labour Party were among those who addressed the crowd.

The Labour Party’s housing spokesman Ciaran Ahern said opposition parties on the left are “united” and will be putting forward “a ream of amendments to try and correct this pig’s ear of a Bill that the Government have put in”.

The Residential Tenancies Bill will introduce tenancies of a minimum duration of six years and establish a rental price register for the first time.

The Bill overhauled Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs), extending nationwide a cap on rents for existing tenancies at the rate of inflation or at 2%, whichever is lower.

New six-year minimum tenancies on offer from next month have been criticised for allowing landlords to raise rents every six years.

The protest took place as the Bill was debated in the Dáil with some TDs moving between the protest and the debate as both continued.

People Before Profit’s Paul Murphy told the crowd opposition parties would be “in there fighting on each and every amendment”.

But said the Government is “ramming it through today in five hours of debate, at the end of which they will say all of our opposition amendments are automatically defeated and any Government amendment is automatically passed”.

“It will deliver more profit for vulture funds, for speculators and for large landlords,” Sinn Féin’s Thomas Gould said.

“And for renters, it will deliver huge increases to their rent over the next couple of years.

“This Bill is not for renters, this is a Bill for landlords, for greed.”