Sir, - The number of calls for help I received from elderly people being threatened with eviction from their privately rented accommodation was the most alarming aspect of my term as Lord Mayor of Dublin. Many had over 20 years' occupation of premises whose new owners were exclusively concerned with the earnings potential of their investment.
In the Dublin 6 area alone, many such people have received notices to quit. Others have had their rents increased by up to 300 per cent, or as much as £600 per month. Some in poor health, they were not on Dublin Corporation's housing waiting list and so cannot expect an early offer of accommodation (there are 6,900 applicants at present). I know of one elderly woman who walked around Rathmines in distress all night after the locks on her home were changed.
The recent report of the Government's Commission on the Private Rental Residential Sector offers no safeguards against huge rent increases, while recommending tenancy agreements of only four years. Its proposal on rent disputes is to apply the "market rent", i.e. the highest possible.
By the end of the 19th century, the Irish Land War had secured fair rents and fixity of tenure for tenant farmers from a grudging empire. But the Republic cannot give private tenants the human right of a roof over their heads that is taken for granted in the rest of Europe.
The Labour Party is committed to private tenants' rights. I believe that regulation of this sector would also lead to greater investment in it - as is the case in the rest of Europe - and also ease demand in the house purchase market. - Yours, etc.,
Cllr Mary Frehill, Grove Road, Rathmines, Dublin 6.