LAST UPDATE | 2 Aug 2023

SINN FÉIN HAS today published legislation that would make seeking sex for rent, or advertising such arrangements an offence under the Residential Tenancies Act. 

The party’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said he will seek to introduce the Bill when the Dáil resumes in September. 

Speaking to reporters this morning, Ó Broin said he is hopeful the legislation could be introduced by September or October.

“This is a very short addition to Section 19 of the act. If the government wants to amend it, we have no problem with that whatsoever,” he said.

 “I’m more than happy to meet with Darragh O’Brien in advance of us introducing it.

 “It doesn’t matter whose name is on the bill. What matters is the act is changed. And those renters get the protection they deserve,” Ó Broin added.

The proposal comes after RTÉ Investigates last week broadcast a report looking into sex for rent in Ireland. 

The report revealed what it is like to come face-to-face with the people posting sex for rent ads in Ireland – and showed how some seek sex, from often vulnerable prospective tenants, in exchange for reduced or free accommodation. 

Ó Broin said that “seeking sex for rent is a disgusting predatory form of behaviour”. 

“It should be outlawed,” he said. 

His Bill seeks to make an amendment to the Residential Tenancies Act, making it an offence under Section 19 of the Act for a landlord to seek sex in lieu of rent or to advertise for such arrangements. 

“It is unacceptable that vulnerable tenants would be exposed to this kind of abhorrent behaviour,” Ó Broin said. 

“Renters need the full protection of the law and seeking or advertising sex for rent must be an offence in legislation carrying significant punishment.” 

The Sinn Féin TD said if introduced, renters who are aware of a landlord offering accommodation in exchange for rent should contact the Residential Tenancies Board for guidance on how to collect evidence of wrongdoing.

“In the first instance, the Residential Tenancies Board can confirm to people by way of a phone call what evidence is admissible. Where RTB adjudications take place they don’t make decisions on hearsay, there has to be evidence and that’s either evidence in writing, it’s evidence in recording, it’s evidence in text messages.”

New sanctions or penalties are not proposed as part of Ó’Broin’s amendment, instead the offence would be dealt with under the existing penalties in the act which includes fines of up to €20,000.

“Ultimately, government has to answer as to why they haven’t addressed this matter over the last two years. We’re giving them a chance to address it now,” Ó’Broin said.

 In February 2022, Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan, the party’s housing spokesperson, tabled the Ban on Sex For Rent Bill.

This would have created an offence of requiring or accepting sex as a condition of accommodation, with penalties of up to seven years in prison or a €50,000 fine. 

Speaking last week, O’Callaghan said: “The government didn’t refuse to back it as such.

“They let it go to committee stage and then it was killed off at committee stage. This is often what happens to pieces of legislation that the government don’t necessarily want to oppose but then they don’t work to get it progressed.”

Speaking to reporters the day after the RTÉ Investigates report aired last week, Justice Minister Helen McEntee said what was seen in the report was “absolutely horrendous” and believed that no one, “particularly vulnerable people”, should be put into the position where they are offered sex in exchange for somewhere to live.

“I’ve committed to, as have my colleagues, making sure that we address this and where there are loops or gaps in law that we can address that,” McEntee said.

 “The work is being done, it is being looked at as. It is part of my zero tolerance strategy to address this particular issue.”

McEntee said she wants to get legislation through “as quickly as possible” to address the issue but added that it will take time to make sure that the “right type of law” is constructed.

In a statement following the RTÉ Investigates report, the Irish Property Owners Association (IPOA) called said the actions of the men involved “is in no way representative of the industry as a whole”.

The IPOA said that while it condemns the actions seen in last night’s report, the people who were portrayed as landlords are not governed by any legislation as they were operating under the rent-a-room scheme.

The IPOA said: “The overwhelming majority of landlords operate their properties in a professional, reputable manner; and deem this behaviour to be utterly deplorable.”

However the group said that “an important demarcation” was that those who are operating under the rent-a-room scheme are not landlords “and therefore to portray them as landlords, who are regulated, is wholly inaccurate”.

With reporting by Mairead Maguire and Muiris O’Cearbhaill