Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Again, the Minister did not answer the very specific question. The single biggest cause of the dramatic drop in family homelessness in the last year was the blanket ban on evictions. One of the first acts of Deputy O'Brien as Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage was to end that blanket ban. It was reintroduced when level 5 restrictions returned, but it ended again on 22 April 2021. That means that if landlords continue to issue vacant possession notices to quit and others, we could see a month-on-month increase in homelessness.

I am asking the Minister a very simple question. What is he going to do for those people who today have received notices to quit and who are not eligible for the very restrictive Covid-19 renters protections? What is the Minister going to do for those who have received notices to quit and are at imminent risk of eviction and, therefore, at risk of homelessness? What additional measures and interventions will be taken? Otherwise, the fear of many - not just in the Opposition but also in the homeless services sector - is that the progress made over the last 12 months, to which the Minister rightly referred, will start to be undone and homeless numbers will begin to rise.

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