The Residential Tenancies and Valuation Act 2020 was signed into law on 1 August 2020. It replaces the tenant protections of the previously enacted Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020. That earlier legislation contained a very wide prohibition against all tenancy evictions for any reason during the emergency period that (following later extensions) eventually ran from 27 March 2020 until 1 August 2020. The very breadth of that protection created concerns about the constitutionality of such a wide impact on landlord rights and consequently, the new Act contains a more targeted protection for tenants to alleviate those concerns. 
Termination of Residential Tenancies
The new Act prohibits landlords from terminating tenancies of dwellings when the tenants have made a self-declaration to the Residential Tenancies Board that they are unable to meet their rent payment obligations by reason of the effects of Covid-19. This requirement that the tenant has been affected by Covid-19 could be satisfied, by amongst other things, if the tenant was in receipt of the Covid-19 temporary wage subsidy or any other social welfare provided to alleviate the effects of Covid-19. The prohibition on terminations will run from 1 August 2020 until 10 January 2021. In the event that the self-declaration turns out to be false or misleading, the tenant will be guilty of an offence.
The new Act does not bar a landlord from seeking to terminate a tenancy for any other reason other than the non-payment of rent. Consequently, if a landlord was seeking to terminate a tenancy as a result of anti-social behaviour or for some other breach of covenant in the lease, this new emergency protection will not impact such a landlord’s rights.
Residential Tenancy Rent Increases
The new Act also prohibits an increase in rent during the emergency period for any tenant who has served the declaration on the Residential Tenancies Board. The blanket bar on any residential rent increases no longer applies.
Commercial Tenancies
The previous Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020 contained a complete bar on evictions of all tenancies, which the Irish Courts had interpreted as potentially extending to commercial tenancies as well as residential tenancies. The new Act has revoked that wide bar on evictions of all tenancies and it only prohibits terminations for a “tenancy of a dwelling” in which the self declaration has been made, so the protections contained in that Act will not apply to other commercial tenancies.