Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Éireann: notes that:

— the State remains in the midst of a housing emergency;

— the Government has chosen to end the emergency ban on evictions on 31st March, 2023;

— the Government, in making this decision, has increased the stress and insecurity experienced by the 750,000 people, including working families, living in private rented accommodation;

— the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage has admitted that homelessness will increase once the current eviction ban ends;

— according to the Residential Tenancies Board 7,539 eviction notices were issued from January to September in 2022;

— only a handful of tenant-in-situ purchases were completed in Dublin in the last year;

— emergency homeless accommodation is at breaking point; and

— the Government has no contingency plan in place to deal with the increase in homeless presentations when the current ban on evictions ends; and

calls on the Government to:

— extend the emergency ban on evictions until the end of January 2024;

— expand the tenant-in-situ scheme for both social and affordable cost rental tenants;

— use emergency planning and procurement powers to target vacant and derelict buildings and new building technologies to increase the supply of social and affordable homes above the existing 2023 targets; and

— urgently commence the biggest social and affordable housing programme in the history of the State so that people can access secure, affordable housing to buy and rent.

In ten days’ time, the emergency ban on no-fault evictions will come to an end, which was a decision of the Minister and his Cabinet colleagues. We know from Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, figures released recently that a very large number of families, single people, couples, families with children and pensioners will have notices to quit that will fall due from April. Of course, some of these people will find alternative private rental accommodation, albeit with some difficulty. However, many of these people will be forced to move in with family and friends. In some cases, people will be forced to emigrate because they will be unable to find alternative accommodation. However, a very large number of the men, women and children with eviction notices will seek emergency accommodation. We know that from what has been happening in recent years. According to the local authorities we speak to on a regular basis, they are almost at capacity. In fact, some local authorities have no emergency accommodation available tonight. This means that when people present to their local authorities in April, May and June and no emergency accommodation is available, they will be forced to sleep rough, or if the Tusla guidance from 2018 continues in force, families with children will be referred to Garda stations for a safe place to sleep.

We are going to see levels of homelessness that nobody ever thought was possible. I have to say that the Minister is responsible. He and his Cabinet colleagues made this decision. More importantly, however, the reason we are in this crisis is because the Minister has failed to deliver an adequate supply of social and affordable homes since taking office.

Not only are the Government's targets too low, but year after year it has missed them. The Government has also failed to respond to what has been a shrinking private rental sector over six or seven years, which the Minister spoke loudly about when he was in Opposition and about which he has done nothing since becoming the Minister. The worst decision of all is the decision to end the ban on evictions. Last October I wrote to the Minister and I set out in some detail the measures he could and should have taken. I wrote to the Minister again two weeks ago repeating many of those measures. On both occasions, not only did the Minister ignore the advice that came from Opposition, he also ignored the advice that came from NGOs, from homeless service providers in the public sector, and from other opinion makers. As a consequence, we will have a Government decision that willingly, consciously and knowingly will lead to ever increasing levels of homelessness.

In the exceptionally long-winded and appallingly superficial alternative motion that the Government has tabled today it admits in black and white that this decision is going to see homelessness increase because of a lack of emergency accommodation. The reason is because the Government did not use the breathing space of the last ban on evictions to reduce the flow of people into homelessness, and because the Government did not take our advice on emergency planning and procurement powers to target derelict vacancies and new building technologies to increase social housing supply over and above the Government's own targets. In fact the Government did not even meet those targets. Because of all of those failures and because of the Minster's decision there are people tonight who simply do not know where they are going to go in April, in May and in June.

Probably the most telling aspect of the debate we have had in the last two weeks is when the Minister and his colleagues are asked over and over again a very simple question. What is their advice to those people, the families, single people, and children when they present to the local authority and that local authority has no emergency accommodation? Where do they go? The Minister still has not answered that.

Worse than that, the Government's hastily cobbled together set of proposals launched two weeks ago, and now again the even more hastily cobbled together and less convincing set of propositions here, will do nothing at all for people this side of the autumn, and for many nothing into the winter. The idea that the Minister thinks his housing plan is working, and the idea that he thinks this is a credible response to the highest levels of homelessness in modern history in this State, is an absolute disgrace. The Minister and his colleagues should be ashamed of themselves. As those homeless numbers start to rise come April, it will be the Minister's responsibility and that of the colleagues around him.

I have no hesitation in urging the Government to reverse its decision, to extend the emergency ban on evictions, and crucially to put in place the emergency measures we have been screaming for the Minister to do for almost a year. If the Government fails to do that they will be responsible for increasing levels of homelessness in the time ahead.

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