Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I bring before the House the issue of mass evictions due to take place in Cork city this Christmas. The evictions are taking place at Chorister's House in Dean Street on Cork's south side, beside St. Fin Barre's Cathedral. Ironically, the evictions take place right next door to the constituency of Cork South-Central, which hosts three Government Ministers who voted to lift the eviction ban. The Ministers, Deputies Micheál Martin, Coveney and Michael McGrath, might be interested to learn that, in the wake of their decision to lift that ban, these tenants were issued with notices to quit at the end of May. Some were for 27 November and others for 10 January. Some of these tenants have left since the notices to quit were issued but a majority remain. Some of those tenants have lived at the house for more than ten years. Some are vulnerable people. One man who is due to be forced out in November is due to have surgery on a heart valve that same month. Where are these people expected to go? It is one thing to be evicted at Christmas; it is quite another to be evicted into homelessness at Christmas. The landlord wants to renovate the building in advance of a sale. The tenants have written to Cork City Council asking that the building be purchased under the tenantin situscheme. They believe that necessary renovations can be carried out without the need for people to quit the premises by using vacant rooms on a rotating basis and filling the building when the renovations are complete.

A motion to activate the tenantin situ powers has been put forward by my colleague, Councillor Brian McCarthy, and I understand it is due to come before the council's housing committee on 3 October.

Choristers House, by the way, was built in 1760 to house the St. Fin Barre's Cathedral choir. It is a listed building. By purchasing this building and taking it into public ownership, Cork City Council would not only prevent people being evicted into homelessness this Christmas but it would place a historic building into the hands of the city and its people.

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