Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. That was very helpful. I am very happy to hear that the RTB is considering the issue of illegal evictions and reporting to the Minister of State on it. This is very useful. I realise the matter is dealt with in the programme for Government. I am delighted to hear about it.

What the RTB can do is very much about process and will be after the fact. What we see happening on the streets in my constituency is people turning up on a particular day and asking tenants to leave their homes. While I hope and am sure that the RTB will have a robust answer to the question of how we deal with the illegal evictions, I believe An Garda needs proper procedures for engaging with evictions in general to ensure they are carried out legally on the given day. It is as much about An Garda having clarity on its role as it is about the tenant having clarity. It is incredibly difficult for gardaí to engage in positive community policing the day after being involved in the kinds of evictions in question when the ramifications of the incidents I have described are so far-reaching. I thank the Minister of State for his answer and I appreciate his work on this.

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