Sinn Féin publishes Bill to ban seeking sex in exchange for rent

Sinn Féin has published legislation that would make it an offence to seek sex for rent or advertising such arrangements.

It comes in the wake of media coverage of landlords seeking sex in exchange for accommodation.

Dublin Mid-West TD Eoin Ó Broin, the party’s housing spokesman, said the Bill would amend the Residential Tenancies Act. The party will seek to introduce the Bill when the Dáil resumes in September.

Last year, the Social Democrats housing spokesman Cian O’Callaghan introduced legislation seeking to make sex for rent an offence, which was passed without Government opposition in March 2022. The legislation 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 fine of €50,000.

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[ Landlords seeking sex for rent has ‘become normalised’ ]

However, Mr Ó Broin said that the Government rejected the bill last July following pre-legislative scrutiny, committing at the time to review the matter.

“A year on, and as exposed by RTÉ Investigates last month, the scandal continues. In an environment of rising rents, limited rental supply and an escalating homeless crisis, some landlords are preying on desperate and vulnerable prospective tenants seeking sex in lieu of rent,” he said.

“The Bill I am publishing today is an amendment to the Residential Tenancies Act. It would make it an offence under section 19 of that 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. It is also unacceptable that almost two years since the issue was first brought to public attention and a full year after legislation passed in the Dáil, that Government has failed to act.”