Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá sé thar am dúinn déileáil leis seo. We absolutely support the call for a system to deal with rent arrears. The Government inaction on this will just leave more children in homeless accommodation. We in Sinn Féin have been calling for this issue to be tackled for some time. We know from data published by the ESRI that young people and those renting are more likely to be in a more precarious situation with regard to their income due to Covid-19 restrictions. We know that since the special Covid-19 rent supplement payment was introduced in March that the number of claims has increased by almost 40%. We in Sinn Féin hosted a survey of renters which showed that 60% of those who took part had lost income because of Covid-19 and a similar number were really concerned about mounting rent arrears. Some 68% of renters in our survey expected to have arrears of up to €3,000 while a further 13% expected the debt to be as much as €5,000.

The moratorium on evictions and the ban on rent increases is due to end on 20 July. The Government must extend the ban on evictions until at least the end of 2020. It must also extend the access to the Covid-19 rent supplement payment until the end of the year. Not doing so will have disastrous consequences for people across this State and in my county, Galway. The Simon Community has reported a drop in people entering emergency accommodation in Galway, which is as a direct result of the ban on evictions and rent increases. There is no doubt that once this ban is lifted, there will be a wave of new homelessness, not to mention mortgage arrears.

By stopping the banks from charging penalties or surcharges on mortgage arrears accrued during the pandemic and extending the ban on evictions, we can provide certainty for individuals and families as well as avoiding a potentially dangerous spiral of mortgage arrears and evictions that will cause untold distress for families throughout the State.

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