Mattie McGrath: Welcomes Housing Bill but Demands Eviction Protections

I'm glad to be able to speak tonight on this piece of legislation, and I want to wish the Minister well in his office. I worked with him in the same esteemed outfit as himself, but I took a different path, thankfully, since then, and thanks to the lecturers for supporting me, but I worked with him on the last housing committee, in the last Dáil, and he was very energetic and some great ideas, and very enthusiastic, and I can report, I used to be a member of the Irish Council of Social Housing, and I still have a relationship with him, and Mr Donald MacManus was the CEO there, and the people there are very impressed with his attitude and his approach towards getting the work done, which is a slogan I use myself, and you know, early morning meetings regularly and regular updates, because we've had too much lethargy and too much, you know, talk and no action in the last several years, several years, and not getting the delivery, we had promises of delivery, but we wouldn't get enough blockages, but look, I have a couple things to say about this bill, I'm very disappointed that it's, that I welcome it, but I'm disappointed when we were here this morning, discussing what I called tyrannical powers being given to the government, in regard to the lockdown for the next, up till, up till next June 2021, next year, and why this bill, this bill tonight isn't attached to that, or hasn't the same timelines, I, for the life of me, will not know, because if we are expecting, and having those kinds of draconian powers, expecting the worst, surely we can expect the same for renters, renters need security of tenure, now I'm not going here to demonise all landlords, because there's some very, very good landlords, and there's a few very, very bad ones, and there's an awful lot in the middle, that do their best, and their own intention, and our accidental landlords, they might be left the house, or acquired a property somewhere or other, that they never expected to have, and, yeah, they're great people, and the relationship between the tenants, and, and, and, and, and the landlords is very good, there's some areas, then, where the tenants are wrong, where they're just, like, out, and damaged, and don't appreciate, uh, the property, and the landlords can't do anything, and the PRTV often doesn't support them either, and, you know, it's unfair, and landlords are leaving them, I left here, I think this day, fortnight, and went down, uh, out here, and, and, down the road to a chemist, down here, this lovely plush crowd to Dublin, with all the new buildings, and, uh, when I came out, this man was in a van, and he recognised me, and he said, I'm a landlord, here in the centre of Dublin, I'm a landlord, he said, for 40 years, I have 160, not only man in his van, he was in fixing a, uh, a, a, a, a toilet, or some plumbing problem, one of his house, and getting out, he said, because there's too much hassle, we're being demonised, we're not respected, he's providing those, that many units, and if people like him, not only gentleman driving in an ordinary van, something similar to driving himself, in my own constituency, a workman, a businessman, but maybe, and put his homes, and a good relationship with the vast majority of his tenants, but wants to be, but he got just tired, with the pressures, and the demonising, and the, like, adding, and he had, he had a lot to say about certain parties of the left, who are constantly attacking the landlords, we drive them all away, where did we go, we saw it here with the bedsits in Dublin, when they were all closed down, some years ago, so it's a stupid decision, because, okay, there wasn't ideal, but they're much better than sleeping in a box, or sleeping on the street, God help us, and, you know, we've over 8,000 families declared to be homeless, so, and Father Peter, Mike, Mike Ferry, and those people are doing their best as well, and the voluntary groups must be supported, and I'm very delighted that the minister is supporting them, but the evictions, um, and the eviction, um, shouldn't be going on, because people have been discommoded, ordinary families, who are working, and paying their rent, and happy to pay it, and raise their families, they've been put out of work, okay, they're getting maybe pandemic payment, or whatever, but, there's no certainty in that, and the worry, and the fear, that's out there now, going forward, is huge as well, so, we must, have this legislation, carried on, uh, minister, in tandem, with, with, um, with, with, with the, the, the, the, the legislation you're passing this morning, that we're voting on tonight, the legislation you're going to pass tomorrow, but the health amendment bill, and have it in tandem, why have we, this only for level five, in level four, people were under threat of evictions as well, and we know that, and people, and I want to tell you this minister, and you know, one of the gentlemen I'm talking to, you know him well, uh, he used to be a next, uh, a next, um, party member with you as well, and he was dragged through the courts, right through the pandemic, was dragged through the courts, day after day, day in, day out, we were told that the courts wasn't doing it, we were just here in the emergency cases, and right through, by vulture funds, and by, and by, and lost properties, and they were, they were rental properties, and the families were messesly evicted out in the street, in the middle of the, the first lockdown, messesly, messesly, in the early morning, raid, just evicted, out in the street, six families met homeless there and then, and this wasn't supposed to go on at all, why are we so blinded, why are we here blindfolds on, this government, and the last government, and successful, when the, when the banks and the vulture funds, we make it easy for them. I don't mean to interrupt you, but your colleague behind you is indicating that he wishes to speak there, but he might be here. I didn't see him, sorry, I didn't see him. Yeah, so I'm just, just, er. Goel maher, I didn't see him, I just want to say that to you, and I want to say, Minister, this must be extended along with, this must be extended along with, um, with, as I said, the legislation for the, the powers you're given until next summer, which is too much, I felt February would be enough, but why have, why are we due to you, why is it only protect the families that are in the rented properties, and in threat of eviction, we're only protect them while level five is there, and ten days thereafter. The fear of that, you know what I mean, they're hoping, obviously, that the restrictions will be lifted, and the fear of that for them, they'll be hoping the restrictions will never be lifted. So, I'm making the point that we have a two-tier, blatantly two-tier, we're looking after the vulture funds, and the banks, and giving us big gratis, and this idea of the ministers meeting the banks, and asking them to be nice, the moratorium shouldn't have been ended, the moratorium should be there, all our European countries, several of them, have brought in legislation to insist on moratoriums for, for, for the banks, and for the vulture funds, and for the families. I'm, just, just to be fair, I'm not.