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

We are in an absolutely dire state with homelessness and evictions. We have record levels of people in emergency accommodation and a massive spike in people being evicted through no fault of their own because of the sale of properties by landlords. I note that even Fianna Fáil backbenchers, somewhat belatedly, are now calling for what we have been calling for some time, which is a ban on evictions at least on an emergency basis to stop more people going into homelessness. Will the Government implement such a ban? Will it embark on an aggressive proactive policy to use some of the windfall revenues now available to the State to buy properties? We should not merely tell local authorities where they can do it but tell them they must buy properties where people are threatened with eviction and homelessness.

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