Madam, – Peter S White (March 14th) advances a novel argument in favour of the status quo, saying landlord and tenant legislation has evolved over hundreds of years and it would be unwise to change it unless absolutely necessary.
The treatment of tenants in Ireland in the past was hardly a model of fairness, and the need for reform played an important role in our history. More recently, significant reforms have taken place in the past 30 to 40 years in terms of tenants’ rights, including the right to buy out ground rents. These reforms have brought Ireland closer to its neighbours; and most foreign investors, far from being aghast at the notion that a tenant should only be required to pay a fair market rent, are likely to be more surprised at Mr White’s suggestion that it somehow makes sense to seek higher rents from what he describes as “insolvent commercial tenants”. – Yours, etc,