Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I will start by asking a simple question. Do eviction bans work? We have some evidence from this State in the past couple of years which might help us to answer that question. Bear with me while I give a couple of statistics. The first eviction ban we had came in at the start of Covid. In March 2020, the number of people who were forced to live in emergency accommodation in this State, often described, completely incorrectly, as the number of homeless in the State - it is a small fraction of the numbers who are homeless in this State - was 9,907 people. By the time that ban was lifted in April 2021, the number living in emergency accommodation was 8,060. In other words, the numbers living in emergency accommodation were still high but they had been reduced by nearly 2,000 people. I would go so far as to say it was probably the most successful housing policy introduced by any Government in this State since this housing crisis began. It was forced upon the Government by a public health emergency and pressures from these benches, as well, I would add. That was the first eviction ban.

The second ban has not been in place for so long that we are able to look at it in an overview in the same way as the first, but nevertheless it offers up some information and evidence. In November of last year, the numbers forced to live in emergency accommodation were 11,397, and in December, that had increased in 11,632. I listened with interest to the Taoiseach in the Dáil the other day. He made the same point as the Minister, that the Government is weighing up the situation, and he outlined the pros and cons of keeping the eviction ban in place. If I heard him correctly, he seemed to indicate that one of the cons was that this may not be working. The eviction ban is in place and the numbers continue to rise. The Taoiseach, if that was his line of argument, is looking at it in a rather skewed way. The question is that if the numbers in emergency accommodation are continuing to rise while an eviction ban is in place, what the hell will happen when the eviction ban is lifted at the end of March? Will we see a tsunami of evictions? It clearly points in that direction. Rather than scrapping an eviction ban, that is an argument for strengthening it. People who are served notice to quit in advance of the dates being covered by the legislation would be one way to do it. The way we are specifically proposing today is by strengthening and extending the legislation. That is the point at the heart of this Bill. Threshold or any of the agencies that deal with tenants' rights, housing and homelessness will say that survey after survey show that the number one cause of homelessness in this State for men, women and children is eviction from the private rental sector. We have an emergency here and we have to stem that flow by extending and strengthening.

I will deal with some of the points that were raised by the Minister. I do not have time to deal with them all, but I will deal with some of the key points that were raised. It was said the Bill does not include a graduated time for notices to quit and that there will be a cliff edge.

That is precisely why we inserted into the Bill that there has to be a review by the Minister. It allows for that to be included.

The Minister said that the Bill does not take account of premises that are deemed unfit, where there are fire or health and safety issues and so on. I would make the point that people are continuing to be evicted, even during this ban. Where are they being evicted to? They are being evicted into emergency accommodation which, in many cases, is itself overcrowded. We do not have an issue with changes being made which allow for genuine cases where there are health and safety concerns.

The Minister says that we are not going to sort the problem out in one year but his partners in government, Fine Gael, have been in office for 12 years. Fianna Fáil are not the new boys on the block either. Fianna Fáil has been in office for three years now and it used its votes to prop up a Fine Gael-led Government for a further four years. That is seven years in total and in fact, I could make a strong argument which I do not have time to go into now that the housing crisis does not just date back to Fine Gael's assumption of power but goes right back to the crazy housing boom of the Celtic tiger era when massive profits were being made by the banks, developers and those who hung out in the Galway tent. We need only to ask one of Fianna Fáil's latest recruits, the man who joined for €20 and who is looking at a certain election in 2026. He might be able to tell us a little bit about that.

The Minister said that the Bill would include overholding but the Covid eviction ban also included overholding. Reference was made to the legal framework so let us talk about the legal framework for a moment. We have been hearing for some time that the Housing Commission is going to bring a proposed wording to the Government for a constitutional referendum on the right to housing. We thought we might get that late last year but we did not. We thought we might get it in January but we did not and we are now near the end of February. I would like the Minister to inform the House as to when we are likely to see that. Are there any indications as to when we will see that report or proposal from the Housing Commission?

We want to see a constitutional referendum on the right to housing but we are clear that it is not a substitute for a mass water-charges style campaign on the streets to light a fire under, and put pressure on, the Government for change on this issue. It is not something that will solve the crisis itself by any means but if it strengthens the constitutional provision that consideration and weight must be given to the public good as opposed to the prioritisation of the rights of private property, that can only be a good thing. It is something that we would campaign for and would hope to mobilise people in communities and workplaces to campaign for as well.

There were lots of other points that I intended to make but I do not have the time. I will make one final point because it is a topical issue these days. I urge people who are at the sharp end of the housing crisis and who are getting leaflets in their door from the far right to check out where it stands on the issue of a constitutional right to housing. Those on the far right are opposed to it. They see it as a left wing proposal and are opposed to it, going forward. Their position would be well supported by the big developers, vulture funds and those who have their fingerprints all over this housing crisis. Those on the far right are no friends of ordinary working people.

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