Danny Healy-Rae: Six-Year Tenancy Rule Threatens Homeowners

Thank you very much, Cahillac. First of all, Cahillac, I want to make it crystal clear that I myself only own one house and I am not in the rental business or never have been. And I want to make that absolutely clear. I only own one house. Minister, I'm very concerned about this six-year rule. I believe we're interfering or attempting to interfere with people's constitutional rights and their democratic rights. People work very hard to build or to buy these homes and early in the morning, late at night, and I believe that they have a constitutional right to determine how long they want to rent their house out for to tenants. And we all know that tenants and landlords need each other, one as much as the other. And for the most part, I would say 70 or 80% of landlords and tenants are getting on damn fine without any interference from us. And that is a fact. And I think it is very wrong to be forcing honest, good people with maybe one house or two houses, or at the very most three houses, but mostly one or two is to go around Kerry. And since this rule story bill was being mooted back in the second half of last year, I have the amount of people that have come into my clinics that are on the phone day after day, shivering. They are getting notices now because these landlords, I don't like calling them landlords, but that's what they are, talked about as, but these house owners are getting out, ministers. And that is a genuine fact. And I don't blame them in a way because they're being forced into this that they'll have to rent their houses for six full years. And I'll just give a... No one knows what way the thing will change in between that. Six years is a very long time. But I'll just give you two examples. There was a young fellow who came home from Australia and he bought a house. And he was going back to Australia, he made it clear he'd be back home in Ireland in a year, in 12 months. He didn't get his house back, even though he made it very clear at the outset, he didn't get his house back for another year and a half. There was another person, rented out their house and found that they couldn't pay the bank for the house. So he went into a transaction, he sold his house, he had an notice given to the tenant, who was a consultant, by the way, earning good money. And he needed to get his... the young fellow needed to get his house back to pay the bank and to get out. But it took him three years to get that consultant out. He even went to the bother of locating another house for the consultant. And the consultant came back and told him that the wife didn't like that house. So the poor fellow that had his house sold and was still paying the bank loan because he couldn't get the money from the fellow that bought it, because he couldn't give him vacant possession. That's what happened. So I worry for people who meet some clients like those after six years trying to get someone like that out of their house. And I think there were several other things that we could do. Rather, we should be dealing with the vacant houses. They're all around us. We see them every day. I have asked you several times to do something like you're doing for the Ukraine people. If we can do it for the Ukrainians, pay 600 tax-free to the landlords that are renting them houses to them, and they're getting them. And our Irish people are not getting them. In Kerry, and that's what I'm talking about. Not up the country, around the country, and talk your own Clermy, Trilie, Ginde, and Khmeren, all those places. What's happening there? The Ukrainians get the house before the Irish person because there's 600 tax-free being put up front by the state for them, and we're not offering that. I asked him to do that for Irish people. They're our own, and they're in trouble. And he could do that. And that would tempt a lot of people not to leave their houses vacant, and they're selling them there. And the other problem is then, that I have stated, they're paying 50% tax, which is not fair. Other countries only allow 30% tax, or maybe 27% or 28% tax, regardless of what your income is, and what other income we have besides the houses. That's what we'll pay for income tax against whatever rent you're getting. And we should be doing something like that. We have too many vacant houses around the country. We should be doing something with them. Renters, it's something unbelievable to see young girls coming in and thereafter getting noticed to quit. And it's all because of this six-year rule. I see a girl, while I was dealing with the few that were before her, last weekend I looked down the hall, and she was absolutely shaking. Every bit of her liking, I believe. I was hurt by that, ministers. And I am hurt by that. And I think we could be doing better some other way. And even a lot of work may be put into this, but I'd like to see you do something about equalizing the story with Irish people, with the Ukrainians. And I'd like to see you do something or a lot more about the vacant houses that are all around us. There's 54 houses from the top of Khmer town and we'll go out a small bit all the way out to Kilgarven, through Kilgarven village, down Dlinflesk, until we finish up at the Kerry Way. On the side of the road, 54 houses are vacant and no one in them. Grand houses. And they need to only step onto the road for the 270 buses passing from Kilgarven to Kilgarven and through Dlinflesk. And they could go where they like on the rural transport. So, the government's plan to lock people in, who are renting houses into six-year tenancies is not going to work in Kerry. And I say that because people are getting onto me every day, trying to force people into six-year tenancies and not to go into work. You also have short-term lettings in your sight. And I say to you that this is another wrong direction before you go any farther with it. There's people have been at this for 20 years and they won't rent their houses long-term for all the different reasons. And they have been at it for 20, 21 years. And I say to you because government hasn't been clear, I've been honest with these people, that tell them to go for planning permission and that they'll get planning permission and to register with more fault. And I say to you that's false. They don't need to go for planning permission when they're more than seven years at it. They're planning accrued or planning acquired by being in the game for seven years. I'm asking you to take stock of that. And please take stock of it. I want you to know also what's happening about the Tin and Citrus scheme in Kerry. I have a number of times taken out officials from Kerry County Council to look at the house where the tenant has been asked to leave and their time is up. And invariably they have told me that there's something wrong at the house. And then at the end of it, after a number of times doing this, they're telling me they will buy no second-hand house, only a new house. So that's not fair to be telling people that there's a tenant in situ scheme when it's not working in Kerry anyway. Maybe it is working somewhere else. Again, I say to your ministers, and it is good to see three ministers listening to us because we only have a few minutes when we come in here. This six-year rule will not work. He'll lose more houses than he'll gain. I'm saying that honestly to you. I asked you about to do something about people that want to just build their own house. We have this urban-generated pressure class in our planning in Kerry that rules against people. It was supposed to prevent people from coming out from an urban setting, out the country. But three and four and seven miles out, the people from that area can get permission in that. And surely to God, ministers, we should be doing something or trying to do something for the people that are asking for nothing, only planning permission. They'll borrow the money. They have the money. They'll build a house. They want to stay near their people and to be near them at the end of their days. And we're being blocked of that. That's still a blockage. I'm asking for it to be something about three and four years now going on and I asked the new Taoiseach and I've asked the new ministers and still here we are. There's nothing doing about it. It's like the planning regulator can do what he like and he doesn't listen to the elected members of Kerry County Council. And that's what have happened in Kerry. He insisted in extending this area away out from Killarney, way out from Killarney, way out from Kimear and way out from Dingde so that people couldn't get permission out of the country. That's what's happening, ministers. And those people wouldn't be looking to turn into any house. They had their own houses built on gold. And they were asking just for planning permission. Unequal terms that they're accepting tanks to be right, that the access to the national road or whatever road it should be, they're coming out to the local road, that to be fair, and that they'd cause no accidents. They're looking for nothing exceptional. Even whether there's an existing entrance, they're disallowed there. Imagine that. And in fairness to your writer, when he was Taoiseach, he said a blanket ban couldn't be right, even though that was his sign. The bloody document where people have been stopped to come out on national primary and national secretary roads in 2012, just he signed it into law. But he said after, when he became Taoiseach here inside, that the blanket ban was wrong. And we have so many of those people trying to get on to those type of roads. and then they're not allowed. Them things are all small things and they could be sorted out and they should be sorted out between the housing minister and the planning regulator and the Taoiseach if necessary and all the other ministers because they were simple things that could be sorted out. And I'm saying to you that this, I'm worried that this won't work. And trying to stop people of the short term letting, that's not fair. It won't work because those people will not go into long term letting if secular, secularum won't happen. They're at the Airbnb for 20, 22 and 23 years and they can prove that they're at it for more than seven years. And again I say it is wrong to be telling these people and housing departments in different places saying to them well you have to get planning permission or retention. That is not the truth. They can get registered. They should be allowed to get registered without doing this because if they're denied planning then this is the crucial point. If they go for planning and they're denied planning they don't have the benefit of the 21 or the 22 years that they've been at the Airbnb they haven't had benefit at all after that they'd have to lose it because they went for planning if they had planning they wouldn't have gone for it at that stage. So they have to be very careful about that but I'm against these things and this bill as it's constituted if it didn't change I'll play the truth and no backdoors about it I'll have to vote against this. Thank you Deputy.