Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Many struggled through the pandemic dealing with illness, loss, isolation and grief but for others, it was a lifeline. For the first time in years, we saw the numbers of homelessness actually decline. How bad does housing policy have to be that a pandemic improves a person's situation?

That was the case for many individuals and families. The Government lifted the Covid eviction ban last April and everyone knew what would happen, that we would again have a situation where homelessness would rise month on month, back to where we were pre pandemic. The housing crisis continues to deepen, with rents in my own county of Mayo up 90% from the lowest point. According to the latest daft.ie report, they increased 16% in the last year alone, yet we do not have any designated rent pressure zones. It is almost impossible to keep up with the number of people contacting my office and I am sure other people's offices just seeking help to find a roof over their heads. It is a really desperate situation. I have never seen the like before in all of my time as a public representative. The eviction ban is not a silver bullet but it will mean the world to families currently fearing being evicted into homelessness.

The measures still require people to respect the property and continue paying their rent, obviously. We need to keep this in proportion when we are talking about the impact it will have on landlords. I talked to a woman in Castlebar last week who is a landlord and who has one house. She told me that in all conscience she could not raise the rent because she knew her tenant could not afford it. There are many responsible landlords but there are others who are exploiting the situation out of base. I know of professional carers who work full-time and share a room with five other people, particularly in cities. English-language students are often packed into overcrowded conditions by unscrupulous landlords. I fear that a minority of landlords who never cared about the overcrowding situation might now use the loophole to evict renters. While overcrowding is a serious issue, the Government's sudden concerns about people living in these conditions ring hollow. There is a window of opportunity with this necessary intervention, but it is just a window. If the whole situation is not escalated in terms of increasing the supply side, we will again have another cliff edge come March. That has to be fixed. We also have to lift the income thresholds. They are a nonsense. That report is on the Minister's desk. It needs to be published. We have this opportunity. It will be an absolute failure upon the failure that is already there if this period is not taken to make these interventions count for people in order that they have something as basic as shelter come March and April of next year.

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