Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In this housing crisis, no one should be made homeless or be put under that threat. If the eviction ban ends in the coming months and if it is not extended, this threat of homelessness will become a reality for many families. Renters are stressed, anxious and fearful for their future and parents are fearful for the future of their families. It is just not sustainable that people should live with the prospect of being evicted hanging over their heads.

We know landlords are leaving the rental sector in large numbers and those who are still renting property are doing so at exorbitant rates. Another factor which is helping to skew the rental sector is the opportunity that Ireland’s distressed housing market has given to the vulture funds which have taken full advantage of the mess that is the housing market. They have bought up large housing estates and apartment blocks and are charging exorbitant rents for these properties. They have bought these properties by outbidding households by a massive premium, thereby pushing families even further away from home ownership. Such funds have the means to pay such premium rates for property and they are prepared to do so because of the high returns for renting out these properties.

All of this points to the failure by the Government to provide or build social and affordable housing. The Government has failed to put together a functional policy for housing. Instead, it has put forward proposals such as the shared equity loan scheme. Historically, however, this policy has proven to be a failure and disastrous for people who ended up accumulating very significant and unsustainable debts. The policy also caused an inflation in house prices. There is no reason to believe this will not happen again under the shared equity loan scheme.

The Government needs to encourage and promote housing projects such as the Ó Cualann housing co-operative. Ó Cualann has a proven track record of providing realistic, affordable housing over recent years. The housing shortage is impacting on every aspect of daily life and the consequences are being felt across many sectors of society. If people cannot afford to find accommodation, they cannot then take up the college place, nurses and doctors have to go abroad to work because they cannot find accommodation here, and so on. This toxic mixture of bad housing policy, spiralling rents and unaffordable housing is why we are now at record levels of homelessness. Let us not add to this by placing more people in danger of homelessness through evictions. I say to the Minister of State that the eviction ban needs to be extended.

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