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

One of the sickest aspects of our economy is the fact that property speculators and vulture funds can make money and profit from putting people who have done nothing wrong on the street. The Taoiseach and his Government continue to facilitate that, despite desperate pleas from myself and others about their failure to close loopholes in the Residential Tenancies Act 2020 that allow this to happen, most recently with the decision to end the Covid related eviction ban on the grounds that the 5 km rule has been lifted. Tomorrow, eight residents of the Saint Helen's Court complex in Dún Laoghaire, who have always paid their rent and who have done nothing wrong, including pensioners, workers, ordinary people and families with kids, are due to be evicted. This will happen because the Government has lifted that eviction ban and because it failed to close the loopholes that are being utilised by Mill Street Projects Ltd., a vulture fund which wants to put people on the street to maximise the value of the property.

I also heard from a young woman this week whose father died in homeless services, who has herself been homeless for most of her life and whose sister's son died in homeless services. She is also due to be evicted next Monday because of the lifting of the 5 km rule. She has lived in homeless accommodation for most of her life, as has her sister. For the first time she had a housing assistance payment, HAP, property, which she was paying the rent for. She has done nothing wrong and now she will be evicted. She also informs me that two of her friends will be evicted from other HAP properties, the same HAP that is supposed to be the social housing solution. What kind of sick economy is that? Never mind the lack of human conscience of the people who would do that to other individuals but what is the Government going to do to stop these brutal and inhumane evictions that are driven by the profit greed of vulture funds and property speculators?

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