Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Once again, yesterday's announcement was not a mini-budget. It did not involve any increases in weekly payments, income tax cuts or increases, as would happen in any budget, in spending for Departments. What was announced is a targeted package to help families struggling with the cost of living, pensioners and people on social welfare payments and small businesses in particular. It is clear that it was not a mini-budget. This is evident from the way in which it is targeted and from the fact that it does not relate to either all areas of society or all Departments.

Regarding the issue raised by the Deputy, we will make a decision on the matter as to whether we will extend the partial eviction ban. We will do so within two to three weeks - long before the ban expires. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the Attorney General are working on this matter now.

Whatever we decide to do, it is important that we get it right. There are pros and cons to any decision we might make. Certainly, when this measure was reintroduced late last year, we had hoped that it would have the same effect as it had during the pandemic and that we would see the number of people in emergency accommodation fall. That has not happened and people are still becoming homeless for many different reasons, including family breakdown and other issues as well. In the context of the pros that we have to consider, there is the obvious benefit that if we extend the ban it might reduce the number of people losing their homes. This is important. It is a really big factor that we need to take account of. It weighs on our minds very heavily. We must also consider that this ban is creating a new form of homelessness. I refer to people who cannot move into houses and apartments which they own, including, for example, people coming back from Dubai, Australia and England and who find they are unable to move back into their own homes. We also have the matter of people, for example, who might have bought apartments in Dublin or Cork for when their daughters or sons go to college and who now cannot move them into the properties they bought. This matters too. These are people too and we need to take this into account.

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