Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The homeless figures released in December put the figure at 11,632, including 3,442 children. As my colleagues have said, the actual numbers are much higher because those figures did not take account of rough sleepers, those sofa surfing or those in the box rooms of their parents' homes. The temporary eviction ban was introduced to avoid people being evicted over the winter period. The Minister said it was intended "to afford time for housing supply to increase and to reduce the burden on homelessness services and the pressure on tenants and the residential tenancies market". We in Sinn Féin have consistently called for an emergency response in conjunction with the eviction ban to counteract the escalating homelessness crisis. The required response would be akin to what was done during the Covid-19 crisis. The Minister has not responded to this as a crisis. As a result, tenants are facing a cliff edge. There are few properties available and those that are available are practically unaffordable. Rents in my county of Cavan have increased by 19.8%. They have risen by 15.9% in Monaghan. A family attended my office last week. Their rent was €700 per month and is now going up to €1,250. They are distraught. They do not know how they are going to be able to afford it.

A young mother, a single parent, is facing eviction in the coming months when the eviction ban is lifted. She is being told the council will not give her the housing assistance payment, HAP, unless she can identify a property available to rent for less than €800 per month. That is not possible. She cannot find any such property.

The Minister needs to remove this cliff edge and extend the eviction ban to the end of the year. We must use that time as an opportunity to put in place emergency measures to increase and accelerate the supply of social and affordable housing. The existing targets are simply inadequate. We need 20,000 new social and affordable houses per year.

Local authorities seem to be interpreting the tenant in situscheme to suit their own means. I have been told by my local authority that it does not have the facility to buy houses. It only selects those. It is telling me differently. Any time I suggest it should buy a house where somebody is facing eviction, its representatives tell me the council will not buy the house because it would only make house prices rise and would not help the situation. That is what I am being told.

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