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

There are three measures the Minister could take as a matter of urgency. First, he could lift the effective prohibition on local authorities purchasing properties where HAP or RAS tenants are in situand have been given notices to quit. The problem, as the Minister knows, from the circular is that the councils are asked to prioritise vacant one- and four-bed properties and properties with disability adaptations in order to try to get people trapped in emergency accommodation out. There is a limit of 200 acquisitions in the capital programme for this year. We need the Minister to say to local authorities now that as an emergency measure, where a HAP or RAS tenant has a notice to quit and is at risk of homelessness, local authorities can purchase those in addition to the 200 vacant units the Minister is seeking to acquire. He could also revisit the Focus Ireland amendment to ensure that landlords who availed of tax relief to purchase buy-to-rent properties are not able to issue vacant possession notices to quit and he could work with us to fast-track matters, either by means of Government legislation or our legislation that passed Second Stage in December, namely, Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (Extension of Notice Periods) Bill 2021, which was developed in conjunction with the Simon Communities. The Minister can do these things now and I urge him to do them or these figures will continue to get worse.

See this speech in context