Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 14:

In page 8, between lines 12 and 13, to insert the following: “5. (1) All Notices of Termination of tenancy which fall to be served during or after the enactment of this Act are hereby deemed invalid and no notice of eviction on any grounds may be served on any tenant until this Act is repealed.

(2) All subsequent Notices of Termination shall comply with the minimum notice periods applicable and date from the date they are served after the repeal of Covid-19 Emergency Measures in the Public Interest.”.

The reason for tabling this amendment is to ensure that this is not just a temporary solution during the period of the crisis. We know people who were served notices of eviction before the crisis was declared and became an emergency in this country. They were, for example, given a notice of eviction in January, to be out by November. The period of this crisis does not enable them to find alternatives, given the financial hardship. If this amendment was accepted it would ensure that everything had stood still for these three, four or six months and would go back to square one when it is over.

We would start at stage one, from day one, when this crisis is declared ended. That is the purpose of amendment No. 14.

With regard to amendment No. 19, I know the Government intends to have a provision to stop all evictions during the current crisis. To avoid any doubt, we need to be reassured, particularly with regard to the Traveller community, that this amendment will include all local authority tenants, including the Traveller community, whether they are on legal or illegal sites. Hundreds of Traveller families live in this country without access to water or to toilets, in crowded conditions. I know the Minister of State, Deputy English, has issued instructions to local authorities to take certain measures, but my reports back from the Traveller organisations is that, notwithstanding the difficulty in implementing those measures, there is resistance from local authorities. We need to ensure that there are no evictions in the Traveller community. It has to be spelled out to avoid any doubt.

See this speech in context