Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When the Minister finally listened to us and introduced the eviction ban, he said its aim was "to afford time for housing supply to increase and to reduce the burden on homeless services and the pressure on tenants and the residential tenancies market". The Minister wasted that time. Yesterday, he failed the many in need by introducing nothing to reduce rents, to help with the rising cost of mortgages or to tackle soaring energy bills. It is renters who will pay for the wasted opportunity during the eviction ban under the Minister's watch.

When there is a housing crisis, the Minister is supposed to act with urgency to implement an emergency response. The eviction ban gave him that opportunity but he failed. He was in Tipperary this week. I thank and acknowledge Tipperary County Council and Clúid Housing for their work. The new housing schemes that were announced are good news. However, when the Minister is finished sticking to selected projects, I suggest he gets a feel for what some people in Tipperary and around the country are putting up with because they have nowhere else to go. Perhaps he will get his photograph taken in a flat with condensation running down the walls or mould growing in the corners and where the tenant has no option but to leave. He should visit those people and tell them how his plan is working for them. It is not. He cannot tell those in emergency accommodation across the country that during the eviction ban he worked to give them a better chance to find somewhere to go. He has not given people who are expecting to be evicted in April, May or June any assurance that he tried to help them stand a better chance of securing alternative accommodation quickly.

For the people who are counting down the days nervously, not knowing what the future holds, I urge the Minister to extend the eviction ban. If he does, I ask him to tell us what additional measures he intends to take to provide additional homes to those in emergency accommodation and at risk of homelessness. We told him to expand the tenant in situscheme and to use emergency planning and procurement powers. We told him to plan to make better use of new building technologies in vacant homes. He wasted a chance during the eviction ban. He missed an opportunity yesterday to reduce rents and to support people with rising mortgage costs and protect them from soaring energy bills. I ask him not to fail these families and individuals again.

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