Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I will read a newspaper quote to the Tánaiste. Ms Cherie Ellorig, a Filipino woman who lives in an apartment in Exchange Hall, just around the corner from Tallaght Hospital where she is a nurse, states:

I got my notice [to quit] in the first week of March and it was so shocking. For weeks after I got the letter I was so stressed. I can't concentrate on my work. I can't eat or sleep. I’ve lost nearly 3 kg in the last couple of weeks.

Another woman, Natalia, whose husband is a night porter in the same hospital, has two children. She stated:

They're not aware of what's going on ... I'm trying to keep things as normal as possible for them, even though we are very stressed.

I got an eviction notice on February 28th telling me I have to move out by October 10th. I don't know what to do.

Cherie and Natalia are part of a group of at least 12 families in Exchange Hall who are facing eviction. They are good tenants. They pay their rents and have built a real community together, but they are still facing eviction. The reason is greed - pure and simple - and the Government allows that greed, the drive for maximisation of profits by landlords, to come before the rights of people to a home. The landlords, Rennicks and McPeake, want to sell two floors with vacant possession so that they can maximise the selling price.

If they are evicted, what does the Tánaiste expect them to do? One resident, Ian, told me last night that even though he is almost 40, he would have to move back in with his mother. He says that those who do not have families here, will not be so lucky. They will not have that option and some of them could be made homeless.

As the Tánaiste will be aware, it is not the only group of tenants who are facing a crisis situation. Eviction from private rented accommodation is the number one cause of homelessness.

The Exchange Hall tenants, inspired by the victory of the Leeside residents in Cork, have got organised and will be opposing any eviction. They are taking a case to the RTB but it is not clear whether they will come under the Tyrrelstown amendment because of the way that the ownership of the properties is organised.

Does the Tánaiste agree that they should not have to campaign in order to keep their homes? Does he agree that landlords should not be able to use sale as a reason for eviction regardless of how many evictions are taking place at one time and that, as in Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, they should be required to sell with tenants in situas proposed by our Anti-Evictions Bill 2018, passed through Second Stage, but which it seems the Government is seeking to block by withholding a money message?

Does the Tánaiste agree that their case, as well as the entire housing crisis which has been referred to a lot during this Leaders' Questions session, shows that the entire model of relying on the private market is a failure? Those seeking to build a movement here should look at what is happening in Berlin where tens of thousands of people have been on the streets demanding expropriation of the corporate landlords. They are building towards a referendum which will do just that. Has the Tánaiste ever considered that, instead of encouraging the so-called cuckoos, real estate investment trusts, REITs, and vulture funds by giving them favourable tax treatment, these properties should be nationalised and brought into the public housing stock?

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