Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

For weeks now this Government has been equivocating on whether or not to extend the eviction ban while people who are living on a knife edge are worrying how they are going to pay the rent and their bills and if they will have a home in the coming months or not. Calls are coming from every sector that deals with housing on the dire need to extend the ban. Threshold has had hundreds of people contacting it with regard to eviction. Fr. Peter McVerry has said that we are facing an avalanche of evictions. The Taoiseach's own Minister was compelled to bring in the winter eviction ban because he was advised that up to 2,800 people could find themselves on the streets if the ban was not brought in during November. I cannot tell the Taoiseach of the concern and stress felt by all of the people who come into my constituency office, and I am sure into every constituency office, who are either facing eviction or are worried about facing eviction if this ban is lifted. People are barely keeping their heads above water, and many people cannot even do that. There is a real need for this eviction ban to be extended to keep hundreds of thousands of people in their homes.

I was listening to Nessan Vaughan of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul speak on "Morning Ireland" this morning about the sheer numbers of people coming to it as a result of the cost-of-living crisis. The problem is becoming more widespread. Groups of people who, a year ago, would never have dreamed of needing to go to a charity are now contacting the society, in desperate need of help. If the Government lifts this ban, many people who are already choosing between food and heat will be facing eviction as well.

I have before me an article published by the Nevin Economic Research Institute, NERI, which welcomes the one-off payments but states that the Government's recent cost-of-living package did far too little to combat the rising rates of poverty and deprivation among some of the most vulnerable groups of people. The deprivation rate stands at 44.3% for those with disabilities, 43.5% for lone parents, 48.6% for unemployed people and 35.6% for renters. Children have a one in five probability of living in deprivation. There are 3,431 children and 1,609 families in homelessness. The Children's Rights Alliance stated yesterday that child homelessness went up by 34% last year and family homelessness by 44%.

Things are getting worse for many people. Has the Government used the opportunity afforded by the winter eviction ban to put in any real emergency measures to increase the supply of housing to help those without a home or facing eviction? Before the winter eviction ban was introduced, there was no emergency accommodation available from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive. We are in cost-of-living, homelessness and housing crises. Is the Government going to take away one of the last barriers to thousands of people being evicted from their homes and potentially put us into a severe eviction crisis? What measures has it put in place to provide emergency services for those with termination notices dating from before November last year and for those who received notices since then? How many extra emergency places have been sourced and from where? In the context of the many people renting who are not on a housing list, HAP or RAS, will the Taoiseach instruct landlords that, as soon as an eviction notice issues, they must contact the local authority to give it an opportunity to buy the property? Will he allow that to happen?

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