Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin could not in all conscience allow the Government to end the eviction ban without doing what we can in the interest of renters across County Tipperary and the whole country to change the Government's mind. If we cannot change the mind of the Government or backbenchers, we must look to the Independents who propped up the Government last week. I use the word "Independent" very loosely because if you scratch just below the surface, their true colours start coming out. If they stand by the actions of last week, they will increase the risk of homelessness, which stands at 117 in County Tipperary alone due to fall at the end of this weekend.

I am aware of one estate where the receiver has already moved in to start clearing it out and it intends to start issuing notices to quit as soon as it can. There is another block of apartments where residents have already received notices to quit. Then, there are individuals and families who my party colleagues, Councillor David Dunne and Councillor Tony Black, have been contacted by. The situation is so bad in County Tipperary that they, with three Independent Councillors, have called an emergency meeting of Tipperary Country Council tomorrow to try to put something together to ease the responsibilities the Government has failed to assume. It has failed to look after families across the country. There was an eviction ban and the Government did nothing. No emergency measures were taken at any stage. People were then issued with notices to quit, 117 of them in County Tipperary, as I said. They face a cliff edge at the end of this week, yet the Government still denies there is a problem. In response to the Government's recklessness, my colleagues on Tipperary County Council called that emergency meeting tomorrow.

No responsibility was taken by the Government parties or by the Independents who backed the Government. Even the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has thrown into doubt what the Government told us last week. Deputy Lowry and his colleagues in the Regional Group, who saw fit to prop up the Government last week, have not answered the question either of what happens to those whose eviction notices will fall this weekend.

We have heard repeatedly and we have heard from the Minister again today about turning corners and not making the same mistakes. Let me give the Minister some numbers. He or the Taoiseach does not give them when they stand up to praise themselves. In 2012, 3,808 people were homeless; in 2015, 6,032 people were homeless; in 2018, 9,891 people were homeless; and in 2022, 11,754 people were homeless. Some 3,431 of those are children. Last year, 95 homeless people died under the Government's watch.

The Minister talked about solutions. Those are not solutions. They are failed policies of the Minister and of Fine Gael governments down through the years. Does the Minister wish to know the common denominator in all of that? It is Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. It is not Sinn Féin, the Labour Party, the Social Democrats or anybody on the Opposition side of the House. Those on the Government side of the House have caused this damage. We need Deputies to act in the interest of all these families. We need backbenchers of the three parties and the Independents to have a backbone for a change, reject the Government amendment that is coming, vote with Sinn Féin on this Bill and not to put more people out of their homes and into homelessness.

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