Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I listened carefully to the contribution of the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and in particular that of the Minister of State, given we share a constituency and he will have dealt with some of the people I have dealt with, as I know because they have told me they have been to his constituency office, but he has not answered the question they have been asking me.

The question is one many Deputies on this side of the House have asked, namely, where people are to go. I have been visited by families of children with special needs who have been given notices to quit. There have been 211 notices to quit in our constituency and the question the Minister of State has not answered is where they are supposed to go. He knows for a fact that the emergency accommodation in Limerick is full, as it has been for some time. The temporary emergency provision sends away ten people, on average, every night. They have nowhere to go. The hotels are full, families do not end up staying in the same room each night because they have to move from hotel to hotel and they do not know where they will stay next. It is a problem for children going to school and it is having a very damaging impact on their ability to grow. The Government was told this as far back as seven years ago when Fine Gael was in government and had a housing Minister but utterly failed to do anything about that.

The eviction ban, as we all know, is ending in ten days' time. It is the wrong decision. I appeal to the Minister, in respect of Dublin Fingal, and the Minister of State, in respect of Limerick City, to reconsider. They know we are going to have a problem and that these people have nowhere to go. They cannot tell them where to go nor answer that question. No member of the Government has answered that question. The Minister and the Minister of State covered themselves in waffle for ten minutes. I know the people the Minister of State met because they came to my office as well. He has no answer for those people. It is the wrong decision for people working in emergency accommodation, because more families will have to be turned away than has been the case, and it is the wrong decision for local councils such as that in Limerick, whose massive housing lists will grow. The decision will force more people to seek housing solutions from their local council, increasing the numbers on already-high waiting lists.

It is the wrong decision also for business, and the Government's housing policies are creating huge problems for our economy, as representatives of Chambers Ireland noted at a recent appearance before the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The greatest challenge facing small and medium enterprises this year is the lack of available talent, which is driven by the unavailability of affordable and appropriate housing throughout most of the country. The Government has abandoned renters, but perhaps now that businesses are worried, with growth and jobs affected, they will move on that.

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