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

On behalf of the tenants, I invite the Taoiseach, members of Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, the Labour Party and anyone else who can to get down to the courts to support those tenants. There will be a solidarity rally on Friday.

None of the things the Taoiseach has just mentioned would protect these tenants. The tenancies of indefinite duration still allow a vulture fund to evict tenants under these circumstances. I do not buy the constitutional obstacles to protecting tenants. During Covid the Government brought in an eviction ban under pressure. What happened? The number of people going into homelessness fell from over 10,000 to 7,000 and would have kept falling except for the fact the Government lifted that ban. It was able to do it during Covid; it can do it now. Why does it not do it?

The Tyrrelstown amendment provides that if there are more than ten tenants in a multi-unit complex, they cannot be evicted. This vulture fund tried to evict ten, did not get away with it, came back and evicted fewer than ten and then bullied the rest out. If it can be done for ten tenants, it can be done for anybody. The Government must protect them from unfair evictions. It should not allow vulture funds to evict people for profit and it must control rents so that the landlords cannot charge these extortionate rents.

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