Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When Deputy Varadkar re-entered the office of Taoiseach in December he said housing would be his priority. Now his first major housing decision is to put thousands of renters at risk of losing their homes. With his eyes wide open, the Taoiseach intends to lift the eviction ban knowing that it will spell disaster for so many. It will mean people losing their homes.

It will mean some looking for homeless emergency accommodation that is not there. For others, it will mean sofa-surfing or moving back into the box room of their parents' home with their children in tow. Either-or, we are looking at a tsunami of misery again visited on our people. Now, the Government cobbles together measures or reiterates schemes that are not working efficiently or to scale as some kind of appropriate response. It is not.

The Taoiseach sounds to me like somebody who has thrown in the towel and thrown renters to the wolves. He does not actually believe these things can be solved, but they can.

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