Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The ban on evictions was introduced on 27 March and it worked. It was a very effective policy. At the end of March, 9,907 persons were in emergency accommodation in the State. By the end of April, that had declined to 9,335. By the end of May, it had fallen again to 8,867. At the end of March, 3,300 children were living in emergency accommodation. By the end of May, that was down to 2,787. In the space of a mere two months, the overall numbers forced to live in emergency accommodation in the State declined by more than 1,000, the number of children forced to live in emergency accommodation declined by more than 500 and the overall numbers living in emergency accommodation were the lowest in the State in the course of three whole years. I would go as far as to suggest that was actually the most successful Government housing policy in recent years, yet the Minister is scrapping it.

I know he will stand up and say he is keeping protections for people whose incomes have been hit by Covid, those who are on the temporary wage subsidy scheme and the pandemic unemployment payment. However, there is no doubt and no argument that many people who have protection today will not have protection in a couple of weeks when the blanket ban is ended.

The Minister should not take my word for it. Probably more than any other organisation in the State, Threshold is grappling with the problems facing tenants and the challenges of people facing evictions. Threshold says of the Bill that the protections are "too narrow" and that the Bill "will fail to protect many tenants who are at serious risk of homelessness." Those who are offered the protections are asked to supply a written declaration that their income has been hit by Covid. The Minister or I can write a written declaration, as can the majority of people. However, there are many people in our society who will struggle to do that, many people who are immigrants and do not have the language, and more than one or two people who are functionally illiterate. The Minister should check out the rates of functional illiteracy in the State. They are very high by European standards. The private rented sector is precisely the housing sector where we will find a lot of immigrants and people who do not have full literacy skills.

Much of the focus of the debate has been on the question of banning evictions. There needs to be more focus on the issue of rent increases. The Irish Property Owners Association has put it up on its website that although until now landlords have not been able to increase rent during the course of the ban, that does not stop them organising rent reviews. In other words, it is "on your marks, ready, steady, go" for rent increases as soon as the ban is lifted. We can expect to see rent increases throughout the country in the month of August. The Minister could have fought a court case instead of cowering in a craven fashion before the landlords and taking the advice of an Attorney General who is a landlord himself. He could have gone before the courts and said a ban on evictions and rent increases is in the public interest. He need only look at the figures I quoted earlier. He would have had strong grounds for winning such a case in any court. However, he backed down. This is a backward step. It is not for the public good. It will result in notices to quit appearing on the scene again in the month of August and an increase in homelessness. There are important amendments to this Bill and the debate is not going to finish today. It will continue through the week and afterwards.

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