Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tenants in this State are not protected adequately from summary eviction or eviction with no justification, while local authorities can legally evict without due process. Section 62 of the Housing Act 1962 allowed local authorities to adopt a summary procedure for evicting local authority tenants without a requirement to justify the decision before the District Court or an independent tribunal. This section was deemed by the Supreme Court in 2012 to have been in direct contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights. Specifically, it was found in two cases to be in contravention of Articles 6 and 8 - the right to a fair trial and the right to respect for a person's private and family life, home and correspondence.

In April 2013 the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, said a Bill to repeal section 62 would be before the Dáil in the same year. As the one-year anniversary of the statement approaches, we still have not seen the Bill. Currently, despite the ruling of the courts, there is legislative backing in the State for a local authority to summarily evict tenants without any real justification and in some cases in direct opposition to the public good and the rights of the individual and his or her family. The inaction of the Government on this issue is particularly troublesome, while a number of cases in recent times show that councils in some cases still evict people without a proper and fair hearing and without justification.

Even if section 62 were repealed, there is a need for legislative protection from eviction for tenants, given the devastating effect it can have on people and its potential to put them out on the street. In Kerry in November 2013 a pregnant woman who was unemployed and had problems with alcohol was evicted by the council and forced to find shelter in emergency homeless accommodation. That was despite the securing of a District Court order. The action was in violation of the UN bill of rights, which states that evictions must be a reasonable and proportionate response, subject to due process and fair procedures, and subject to a further state obligation to take all appropriate measures to ensure that evicted individuals are not rendered homeless.

This month, Sinn Féin councillor John Brady received an eviction notice from Bray Town Council. His family now has just under a month to vacate their home. They have lived there for 13 years without issue and are an important part of their community. The reason given was that they had done work to their home more than ten years ago when the council told them it did not have the funds to carry out the work. The eviction notice comes after a prolonged period of campaigning by Councillor Brady for the rights of local authority tenants in the area, which saw him undertake an occupation of the town council offices with two women who had been made homeless with their children.

Another case is that of Patrick Collopy of Limerick city. The 26-year-old, who is living in Bishop Street, has been told by Limerick City Council that he will be kicked out of the home he shared with his mother Rita until her death last year. After her sad death, aged just 50, Patrick received a phone call from the council telling him that he must vacate the house on the grounds of the two-year tenancy rule. He has been up to date with his rent and has never been in trouble with the law.

In those cases the evictions were not fair or reasonable and they were not in the interests of the wider public good. That is why we need protections for tenants and why section 62 must be repealed. The Private Residential Tenancies Board, PRTB, should be given a remit to work with council tenants as a residential tenancies board.

See this speech in context