Vol. 255 No. 4
asked the Minister for Justice if he is aware of the position of tenants on the Proby estate, Dublin, who are at present under threat of eviction and who are paying sums in excess of what the law specifies for freehold and leases; and if he is in a position to state when the revised landlord and tenant legislative proposals will be introduced.
40.
asked the Minister for Justice when he hopes to introduce the proposed Bill on ground rents.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 39 and 40 together.
The Landlord and Tenant Bill, 1970, which was introduced by short and long titles in Dáil Éireann on 9th December, 1970, will be a comprehensive measure dealing, among other matters, with the extension to new classes of tenants of the right to purchase the fee simple and the right to a reversionary lease in accordance with the recommendations of the Landlord and Tenant Commission as contained in their Second Report. The text of this Bill, which will consolidate and reform all the modern statute law on landlord and tenant, is at present being settled. In the meantime, I have made arrangements for a short Bill to be prepared that will include provisions to cater for those tenants on the Proby Estate, Sandycove, who are without rights under existing landlord and tenant legislation, and also to cater for the grant of recreational leases. I hope to be able to have this short Bill ready in the very near future.
Can the Minister say if tenants of local authorities will be able to purchase fee simple under this Bill?
I do not think they will be covered under the short Bill but they will have the same rights as other tenants under the more comprehensive legislation.
Will the Bill be introduced before the recess?
My proposal is to introduce the short Bill in the Seanad before the recess but I am afraid that there will hardly be time to have it dealt with here.
Therefore the Minister is not correct in saying that it will be introduced in the very near future.
I propose to introduce the Bill in the Seanad within a week or ten days.
That is the Bill I am referring to. Will the short Bill be taken here before the recess?
I doubt it. I said it would be introduced in the very near future.
What is the significance of introducing it?
The people concerned will know what the position is and how they will stand.
Do I take it from the Minister's reply that this new Bill will insist that all buildings are on building leases and not leases that cease on a certain date; in other words, that all leases will be renewable?
The short Bill I am talking about now is intended to deal primarily with the position of tenants on the Proby Estate in Sandycove and also with recreational leases. The wider question will be dealt with in the comprehensive Bill which will follow it.
