Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

There is no justification for what is happening to those people.

Whatever about the perfect being the enemy of the good, which is the argument the Government is making in saying that we cannot solve everything right now because of constitutional limits and so on - I do not buy that argument, by the way - there is absolutely no excuse whatsoever, when we have a Covid strategy and when the Government has made clear we will probably be facing further intense restrictions in the new year, for not at least retaining the ban on evictions until this pandemic has passed.

We are in the midst of a pandemic, and the Minister acknowledges that until we have a vaccine this is going to be an ever-present threat. Under any such circumstances or any level of restrictions, how is it acceptable for people to be homeless, to be put into overcrowded housing conditions, to be put out on the street or to be put into emergency accommodation? How could it possibly be compatible with public health? How could it possibly be fair? It is clearly not. To do that to people at the best of times is cruel and terrible and should not be allowed. The Minister supported our Anti-Evictions Bill when he was in opposition. To allow this to happen during a pandemic at any point until the pandemic has come to an end is absolutely unacceptable.

The Minister said the emergency situation we are in allows the Government to impose a ban on evictions. Why then is it limited to level 5? Why would the ban not be for the entirety of the pandemic? There is no good reason other than continuing to pander to the landlords. The right to private property and, critically, the right to make money from private property is actually higher up the pecking order of concerns of the Government than the absolute imperative to ensure nobody is made homeless at any point during this pandemic, regardless of the restrictions being at level 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5.

I will leave it at that. We will vote for this, of course, but really the Minister should give people the security from the possibility of homelessness at least for the entirety of the pandemic and the public health threat it brings.

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