Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In the current rental climate, where houses and apartments are completely unaffordable for the average worker and family and where the houses that these people need do no not exist, the Government must extend the eviction ban beyond 31 March in order to prevent thousands more people becoming homeless. It is the compassionate and humane thing to do. Renters need security. A ban on evictions is, as we all know, a temporary solution, but it is a necessary reaction to the housing crisis that the people of this State have been facing for the past decade. There are 11,632 people, including 3,442 children, who are homeless. Without an extension of the eviction ban, the figures will continue to increase. The Government's failure to get a handle on record house prices, record rents and record levels of homelessness has left us with no choice but to keep the ban in place. People with valid notices to quit will end up homeless, whether it is on 1 April or in May or June, because they have nowhere to go.

My office, like those of all Deputies, has been inundated with people who are worried sick making contact. They are worried sick about where their children are going to sleep because they know they are facing homelessness before the summer is out. Mothers and fathers are ringing and crying down the phone. I know the Minister gets it too. It is absolutely soul-destroying. It is time for the Minister to hit pause. He should use the time that the ban is in place to stem the flow of people going into homelessness, and not remove the one thing that is preventing them from becoming homeless.

See this speech in context