Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, the Minister told us he had not yet decided what to do regarding extending the partial eviction ban. He said it was complicated, that the Attorney General will have to be consulted, that legal opinions will have to be sought and that a balance must be struck between the rights of landlords and of tenants. The real solution, he again told us, is supply. I will help him. My clinic, like that of every Deputy in this House, including the Minister's Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael colleagues, is out the door with housing issues raised by people living in inadequate spaces, on sofas, in places infested with mould and damp or in rented rooms costing €1,500 to €2,000 a month or more. Even so, the anger, desperation and fear of these regular and now perfectly normal housing cases is nothing compared with the terror of those facing eviction.

The Minister has to extend the eviction ban. To simplify the matter for him, we are talking about preventing children being made homeless. Focus Ireland has stated the ban is stemming, but not stopping, the tide of families into homelessness, and that the bans, earlier during Covid in particular, have contributed to significant falls in homelessness figures. The Minster has failed to deal with this crisis of supply, as he calls it, and failed, like his predecessors, to provide the houses that are needed. If he fails to announce an extension soon of this wholly inadequate ban, he will be saying to those facing eviction that it is okay for this State to oversee terror inflicted on the most vulnerable and to put thousands of families and single people out of their homes. They will face eviction into utter chaos, with no homes to rent, not least if they are reliant on HAP or other supports. This House cannot stand over such callous disregard.

We are often lectured about the unintended consequences of badly drawn-up legislation, but the intended consequence of not accepting the Bill, or of the Government not producing its own legislation, is to inflict terror and homelessness on thousands of people. The eviction ban is not a solution to the crisis - we all know that - but it is not intended to be. It is intended only to buy time in the hope real measures to provide homes for everyone can be implemented, a point I will return to.

I expect that, like yesterday, we are going to hear a litany of the great plans and schemes the Minister is busy devising and implementing. I will save him time, therefore, and list the various plans whose praises he intends to sing. There are the first home affordable purchase scheme, the shared equity scheme, the help-to-buy initiative, the cost rental housing scheme, the vacant homes action plan, the vacant properties refurbishment grant, the urban regeneration and development fund, the buy-and-renew scheme, the repair-and-lease scheme and, of course, Croí Cónaithe. That is the list of schemes, plans and actions all wrapped up in the Government's latest housing plan, Housing for All. The Minister likes to tell us this is the first real plan. Of course, it is nothing of the kind. Housing for All joins previous great plans that Ministers such as Deputy Coveney and former Deputy Eoghan Murphy had in Rebuilding Ireland. In case the Minister has forgotten, Rebuilding Ireland was a "comprehensive plan [intended] to address all aspects of the housing system and to address homelessness, accelerate social housing, build more homes [and] improve the rental sector". Before that, there was Deputy Kelly's Labour Party plan, Social Housing Strategy 2020, a plan that was to end waiting lists by 2020 and deliver 35,000 social housing units. They all failed utterly and that is why we see the catastrophe today, the sheer scale of which continues to astound us all, the sheer stupidity of which is breathtaking.

A crisis in which things have never been better for landlords, estate agents, real estate investment trusts and funds of various types has never been worse in the State's history for ordinary people looking for a basic human right to shelter and accommodation. That failure is not for want of plans or strategies such as those I listed or action blueprints, nor for want of photo opportunities, which we see on our TVs every night with the Minister, press releases or glossy brochures. Those plans failed, as this one is failing because of its utter dependence on the private market to deliver homes and on the investment decisions of funds and developers. All the plans and strategies depend on awakening private developers and builders to start building, to make it worth their while to provide homes and breathe life into the housing market by throwing various incentives at landlords and funds to build or rent out homes.

We have thrown access to credit at development funds. We have reduced their taxes, changed laws to lure in foreign investment and held car boot sales of State-owned land and properties, all in the belief we must entice and breathe life into the housing market through the private market. The State has moved heaven and earth to grant any wish to developers and private interests in the housing market. The problem is not that the housing market is not working but that it is working exactly as any market does, perfectly well for those who are amassing profit from it. It is a consequence that will cause untold misery for thousands of people. It is not working well for the people of this State.

For the developers, banks, investment funds, REITs and financial and corporate landlords it is working very well. It is only when we stop making a market out of the basic right and need that is housing that we will address the crisis.

We are told that 2030 will be a magical year and apparently we will end homelessness by then because we signed a declaration in Lisbon. It is in the Housing for All document so it must be true. Coincidentally, that is the same year by which we will have reduced our CO2 emissions by 51% - I have to throw that in.

In reality, neither of these things will happen and certainly not under the current Government given the parties that are in government. A political and philosophical change is required to bring about the desperately needed housing policies we need. In the meantime, the eviction ban extension is the absolute minimum the Government must do in order to end this cruel and inhumane situation.

I want to give a shout out to a number of catastrophic cases that come to my clinic frequently. One woman, Heather, is in the Gallery and is very keen to see how all of this works. At 63 years of age, she is being evicted from a home in Ballyfermot she has rented for 15 years. She and her partner have kept the home up and have never failed to pay the rent. She has no chance of finding an alternative place to live, apart from a room in a hostel. Given the health conditions of her and her partner, that is not feasible or viable. What will happen to her and the many older people like her who are facing eviction into homelessness?

What will happen to the two autistic children of a woman who has received notice to quit from a HAP landlord and cannot find a HAP alternative? As the current eviction ban allowed her some breathing space, she has been searching for nearly a year to find a HAP alternative but cannot find one. What will happen to her and her children, apart from being pushed into homeless accommodation?

I am dealing with a family of four children and a couple who have been living in one small enough room for two years. The children are aged from nine years to 11 months. The mother has to climb four flights of stairs every day with two small babies in prams while her husband is out working. She cannot manage to keep doing this. The children have no space to play. These are small issues in the bigger scheme of things, but are huge for families. The environmental, psychological and social consequences are untold. They are long-term and people will be deeply affected by this. That is why the eviction ban must continue. Come 1 April – interestingly, April fools' day – there will be a tsunami of evictions, or at least tens of thousands of people facing eviction across the State. I mean that. Does the Minister have any idea what will happen? If he does, perhaps he can tell us in his response how many people are likely to be evicted if the ban is lifted.

Does the Minister know the figures I see every day in my clinic, other Deputies see in theirs and which he must see in his? Does he know exactly how many cases involve families with children, older people with illnesses and single people who cannot afford astronomical rents throughout the State? If the Minister can get those statistics together, put them in a package and examine them honestly, God forgive him if he does not extend the eviction ban because I know they will tell a tale of misery, fright and despair.

If Minister does not extend the eviction ban past 1 April until he has provided the housing that is needed, insists that rents are reduced to affordable levels and ensures people can access HAP then shame on him. He is no Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to hold his head up.

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