Carol Nolan condemns new tenancy rules as landlords sell up

Minister, as you are aware, data from the latest homeless quarterly progress report on the scale of homelessness clearly shows that there were 16,734 individuals accessing emergency accommodation at the end of quarter four in 2025. This was an increase of 120 individuals on the position at the end of quarter three 2025 and an increase of 1,870 on the total recorded at the end of quarter four 2024. There were 2,478 families accessing emergency accommodation at the end of quarter four in 2025, an increase of 35 families on the position at the end of quarter three 2025 and an increase of 386 families on the total recorded at the end of quarter four in 2024. On top of all of this chaos now we have new residential tenancies rules and the mass exodus of many small landlords from the housing system. I have met many of these small property owners, they were all people who worked hard, contributed to our economy, paid their taxes and decided to buy a small property which they rented and in many many cases I know from my own constituency the arrangement with their tenants worked quite well. I am now hearing from tenants who are coming in to me in floods of tears that the landlords are forced to sell because of your genius new laws and I do want to condemn those laws because I feel that you are making a bad situation worse. Furthermore I think it shows that the government parties are shifting more and more to the left. In fact they are becoming more left than the left themselves because you have absolutely no right to dictate to citizens in this country as to what they should do with their own private asset that they bought, worked hard for and paid for. Absolutely no right to do that and if that is not from the left wing playbook I don't know what is. But you are certainly making a bad situation worse and I am calling for those laws to be reviewed because I know for a fact I have met many of the property owners who tell me they were Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil voters and they are disgusted with the behaviour and the way they are being treated. I am absolutely disgusted so I am calling for those laws to be reversed. I have repeatedly heightened my concerns around the laws and the growing fear that while in theory safeguards may be in place, in practice the cure may be worse than the disease. Maybe if you hit the top in the vulture funds instead of the small property owners it might make more sense and we might get more solutions and more progress. Maybe that would be the way to proceed. All of that of course is at the macro level but we can see cases at the individual level and it is only then when we see those cases that we can truly gauge the ineffectiveness of the so-called reforms and the harm that continues to be done to families. I am continuing to deal with a constituent who through no fault or desire of their own was forced to sell his home. He did so because he is now locked in a battle trying to gain planning permission for another home, because he already made use of the rule allowing a build if you had a local connection. I also recently established through a series of PQs last month that there are massive delays in the registration process within Tallshire Eran and I know I have repeatedly contacted Tallshire Eran and it is not acceptable, it is totally ineffective and it needs to be overhauled quickly. If you are serious about making progress here you need to have a look and you need to make sure that Tallshire Eran are doing their jobs because from what I can see it is failing. Indeed the data provided to me confirms a rapid and exponential build-up in property registration delays in recent years, with the 2025 figure alone showing over 57,000 applications still pending from that year's lodgements. Surely this can be called out and surely he as government ministers can get a handle and a grip on that as soon as possible. The total arrears across all years now exceeds 90,000, highlighting a massive accumulation that has built up despite efforts to address it. This data underscores the overwhelming scale of the challenge. Applications have grown year on year, outpacing earlier resourcing leading to this backlog, but this is a backlog that has escalated dramatically in the last few years, potentially impacting property transactions, agricultural transactions, conveyancing and the housing market efficiency across Ireland. This highlights the urgency of ongoing efforts to clear applications and prevent further escalation and delays. I was also able to establish through another series of PQs in the last few weeks that the so-called deemed disposal rule is adversely impacting housing. I know the Sunday Business Post carried this very article only this week. I placed the questions primarily because the issue was raised with me by a number of concerned constituents, who feel that the current rules are overly complex and out of kilter with other EU member states. My constituents are also of the view that as currently drafted, the deemed disposal rule is contributing to a hoarding of property by ensuring that people keep what capital they have firmly locked into residential property. This keeps houses off the market and contributes to pent-up demand and inflated rents. I am asking the government to perform some basic joined-up thinking on this issue. If we are serious about tackling the housing crisis, then we must get under the taxation bonnet and properly assess what aspects of the taxation regime can be changed to facilitate greater supply while also allowing people to maximise their investments and returns. By that, I mean private Irish citizens who have contributed to this economy, who have paid their taxes, who have worked hard. They deserve respect and fair play. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.