Elaine Loughlin: Greater good is served by ensuring families cannot be evicted this winter
We have been living through a housing, homelessness, and rental crisis for more than a decade and yet the issue continues to shock.
A particularly low point came last week when the head of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) suggested renters could simply buy themselves out of their own precarious misery.
Worse still, Tom Dunne, chair of the national organisation tasked with mediating between landlords and tenants, questioned whether an eviction ban currently being discussed by the Government would be "fair" on those renting out their accommodation.
There was no mention of those who could be left homeless without such an intervention this winter.
This country has always had an uneasy relationship between tenant and landlord.
You can go back as a far as artist Daniel MacDonald's heart-wrenching scene, which portrays a peasant family being evicted from their thatched cottage during the Famine.
The oil painting features a barefooted woman crying on the shoulder of her husband as he accepts the notice to quit. A little boy plays in the background as an elderly woman, on her knees, pleads with the landlord to show some compassion.
The 1850s picture, now held in Cork's Crawford Gallery was illustrative of thousands of evictions happening across the country at the time.
Ireland has come a long way in the 170-odd years since MacDonald put brush to canvas and now renters have the ability to avoid such a fate — if they have the cash.
Paying a premium on top of what are already eye-watering rents is apparently the way to avoid living in fear of eviction in 2022.
Stumping up more to guarantee rental stability now appears to be an accepted approach by the head of the RTB.
Mr Dunne said it is “worth a tenant’s while to pay more rent to achieve security of tenure," adding that “the greatest security of tenure you get now is from institutional landlords”.
Speaking at the launch of a report into how the private rental sector is making people more vulnerable, Mr Dunne said there is “enormous resistance in our society” to institutional landlords, which he has “always been curious about”.
While so-called vulture funds have gained an unsavory reputation in this country, a fair argument can be made that they do serve a purpose.
Mr Dunne said the main reasons often put forward by landlords who issue notices to quit — that they are selling up or need the property back to accommodate family members — do not apply to institutional investors, which effectively provides indefinite tenancy.
Practically speaking the fact that institutional landlords are large-scale businesses means they have the resources and tradespeople on standby when the washing machine breaks down or the shower begins to leak.
It was a point that Threshold CEO John-Mark McCafferty agreed is “valid”, adding that institutional investors are less likely to end a tenancy in order to substantially refurbish a property, given that they are often buying homes in brand new developments.
However, Mr McCafferty also said that people who Threshold support generally aren't being housed by these large institutions.
Last Friday, not only did Mr Dunne reiterate his suggestion that paying extra to vulture funds is a good idea, he went a few steps further using a somewhat bizarre comparison to buying a car.
"In any market, and it's a market, you pay more for reliability. If you're in the secondhand car market, you will pay more for a car that has a reliable reputation than a make that has not got a reliable reputation." he told RTÉ radio.
It was put to him by host Claire Byrne that a car could be deemed a luxury item, while a home is a basic necessity.
It is important to note that the RTB describes itself as a public body set up to support and develop a well-functioning rental housing sector.
"Our role is to regulate the rental sector, provide information and research to inform policy, maintain a national register of tenancies, resolve disputes between tenants and landlords, initiate an investigation into conduct by a landlord, and provide information to the public to ensure tenancies run smoothly and no issues arise," the RTB website states.
Indeed, Mr Dunne said the RTB must be a "neutral" interagent between landlords and tenants because of its remit in relation to dispute resolution.
But when asked about the possibility of an eviction ban over the winter months, Mr Dunne raised the plight of one group and not another.
You may know the picture but perhaps not where it resides.
— Crawford Art Gallery (@CrawfordArtGall) August 13, 2018
Atlas of the Great Irish Famine comes face-to-face with its cover image, Daniel MacDonald’s The Eviction (c.1850).
See it in HEROES & VILLAINS, or why not seek out more Famine-related art in COMING HOME @westcorkarts. pic.twitter.com/fIbom2cGYB
"One of the things that is not appreciated is the motivation of landlords when they're renting accommodation. If they're renting accommodation, they may be renting out the basis they want it back in a short time for their own use."
He continued: "If we do bring in a ban on evictions, where somebody say comes back from abroad and wants to move into their house and can't move into their house because they can't regain possession, they have to go off and pay a very high rent in a market situation while somebody could be living in their own accommodation at a much, much lower rent.
"The question for society is, is that fair on that person who could move back into their home and pay their mortgage and be happily living in their own accommodation, but the State could force them to be in a position where they've got to pay a high rent elsewhere, pay the mortgage and receive a lower rent?"
The niche example provided would of course be a negative repercussion of the ban, but the alternative is to allow evictions continue through what will be an extraordinarily difficult period for many even without the threat of homelessness hanging over them.
"These are very difficult decisions, and the State has to make a decision, I'm sure that Darragh O'Brien will make decisions on the basis of the greater good," Mr Dunne said.
Surely ensuring families cannot be evicted on Christmas week during an energy crisis is in the interest of the greater good.
The Government consists of a minimum of seven and a maximum of 15 members.
The Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, and the Minister for Finance must be members of Dáil Éireann.
The Constitution also allows two senators to be members of the Government.
However, this rarely happens. Currently, Green Party senator Pippa Hackett is a super junior minister meaning she sits at Cabinet.
Oct 22: Letitia Alice Walkington became the first woman to graduate with a Bachelor of Laws across Ireland and Great Britain.
She received her LLB from the Royal University of Ireland in Dublin. Unable to secure a suitable position as a solicitor or join the bar, she turned to coaching other young women for their examinations and became involved in the women's suffrage movement.
1920
Oct 25: Lord Mayor of Cork Terence MacSwiney died in Brixton Prison. His sister, Mary was by his side and the horror of seeing her brother die on hunger strike only hardened her stance against Treaty.
Oct 22: Cearbhaill Ó Dálaigh resigned as President after then defence minister Paddy Donegan described him as a thundering disgrace. Mr Donegan had made efforts to apologise for the off-script remarks made at the opening of a new cookhouse and dining hall at Columb Barracks in Mullingar, however these efforts were rejected by Mr Ó Dálaigh, letters released years later suggest that the insult was far worse than what had been reported at the time.
2004
Oct 23: Then taoiseach Bertie Ahern made a direct appeal on Al-Jazeera television calling for the release of Irish aid worker Margaret Hassan who has been taken hostage in Iraq. Her family continued to fight for justice in the wake of her death.
Oct 21: Senator David Norris sparked controversy when he suggested that gay cousins should be allowed to marry each other following the outcome of the marriage equality referendum. "It would not take a feather out of me if two cousins married each other. What is the problem with that?" he told the Seanad.
: The 10% levy on concrete blocks was one of the few measures that caused ructions after the budget. It is expected that the details will be significantly altered when the Finance Bill comes before the Dáil later this week.
: Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien has been consulting with the Attorney General to introduce a temporary winter eviction ban, which is now expected to come to Cabinet this morning.
: Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman last week brought the mother and baby homes redress scheme to Cabinet. However, Social Democrats TD Holly Cairns, who is bring forward a Dáil motion on redress on Wednesday, says the minister has not listened to survivors.
: Taoiseach Micheál Martin will be in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, where EU leaders are due to discuss updated proposals for a European energy package.