Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left) | Oireachtas source

It is one issue but two incidents. Yesterday, in my constituency, a landlord attempted to carry out an illegal eviction. This involved a couple with a one-year-old child. While the family were out, the landlord came into the flat, cut off the electricity, took off the front door and changed the locks on the main door of the building. The couple made contact with my constituency office and Councillor Pat Dunne, who works in the office, responded very quickly because the family were obviously distressed, fearful and did not know what to do or who to turn to. He went to the flat and managed to sort out the issue and to explain to the landlord that he was in breach of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004. He was very lucky because he did not know what he was going into, whether there were heavies there or what was happening. The landlord reinstated the electricity, put the door back on and changed the locks again.

The point I want to make is an important one. The very distraught tenant, facing the prospect of his family being on the street, told Councillor Dunne that before he rang my office he had rung for gardaí not once but four times. The gardaí refused to intervene, stating it was a civil matter. This is not the first time this has happened in my area. About six months ago, I sent a letter to the Dublin South Central Policing Forum asking for clarification on the Garda position in regard to illegal evictions. We got a direct reply from Garda headquarters that the Residential Tenancies Act was not criminal legislation and they did not get involved in civil matters. Therefore, the illegal eviction of a family is a civil matter, not a criminal matter.

Yesterday, again, 12 people in Edenmore were arrested for peacefully protesting against the installation of water meters by a private company, a subcontractor employed by Irish Water. Section 12 of the Irish Water Act has been quoted to these people, stating that Irish Water and its subcontractors and agencies can install water meters. It says nothing about it being illegal to protest.

It seems that two laws are being administered here, one for a criminal offence in regard to the installation of water meters while, at the same time, there is no criminal offence in the illegal eviction of a family from their home. I believe the Taoiseach would agree this is wrong, immoral, unfair and should not be happening. The law should be administered equally across society and there should not be one law for private companies and private landlords and another law for families threatened with an illegal eviction or those peacefully protesting against the installation of water meters.

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