Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this Bill. We are happy to support it. If it gets to the next stage, we would propose it is amended because we in People Before Profit have long held, as Deputy O'Callaghan, who obviously shares the same opinion, said, that people who pay rent and have done nothing wrong deserve security of tenure and under no circumstances should be evicted when they have done nothing wrong. That is our review. It is not just about the emergency, although that is the most imminent danger. In the current situation, a notice to quit or eviction makes a person very likely to end up homeless.

Approximately 750,000 men, women and children live in private rented accommodation in this country. Why should they deserve less security than others? Why do they deserve less security than renters in the vast majority of countries in the rest of Europe? Why should they be second class citizens when it comes to fighting for something that we were fighting British landlords over when we were under British rule? A major contributory factor to the Irish revolution was the fight for fixity of tenure. Yet, more than 100 years on, in a supposedly independent State, this Government does not believe that 750,000 people have the right to security of tenure.

We are debating whether there should be a sticking plaster, but what about the fundamental question? Why should people who pay their rent ever have the threat of eviction hanging over them? The answer is they should not. The Government, in a cold-hearted and cruel decision, has, by lifting the ban, made a decision to allow thousands of people to be evicted in the short-term. More generally, the Government believes it is okay for hundreds of thousands of people to have the constant insecurity and fear of possible eviction hanging over their heads when they have done nothing wrong. It is absolutely horrendous.

People Before Profit passed Bills in 2016 and 2018 against all no-fault evictions and another Bill to stop the Government lifting the Covid eviction ban. We had a Bill passed a month ago in the House against lifting the current eviction ban until the housing emergency is over, not that the Government cares what decisions happen. When Bills or motions are passed by the Opposition, the Government simply dismisses and ignores them.

That leads me to be most important thing I want to say, because I do not think the Government is listening. It has clearly set out its stall that the interests of landlords, wealth asset management companies, vulture funds and people who are profiting from the housing misery of others are more important than the rights of tenants and others who are affected in different ways by the housing crisis.

Our view is that at this stage people need to get out on the streets and protest. On a day which is traditionally a day for jokes, it is a terrifying prospect and reality that thousands of people may end up without a roof over their heads. They need to assemble outside the Dáil at 1 p.m. at the cost of living coalition demonstration. I hope there will be thousands and thousands of people at the demonstration, not just those who are immediately threatened with eviction but all of those who live in private rented accommodation, have been on housing lists for a decade or more and are working hard and paying their taxes but are bringing home an income that could not possibly hope to afford the rents that are being charged or the extortionate house prices.

The biggest residential development in the State is in Cherrywood in my area. It comprises 8,000 houses, the first of which have been drip fed onto the market by Hines, an American-based wealth asset management company. Properties are being rented at €2,600 a month. People would need an after-tax income of over €31,000 just to put a roof over their head in one of those developments. Who has that kind of money? That is before people pay their bills and is more than the after-tax income of the average worker. It is absolutely shocking. It is profiteering while others face homelessness and housing misery.

I want to ask about the Government's mitigation measures. The Government was dragged kicking and screaming into introducing the tenant in situscheme by those of us who proposed it. I refer to the cost rental option. For those that are over the threshold, will there be an immediate instruction regarding its details for local authorities? At the moment they have no clue about it. I find that remarkable.

In a speech the Taoiseach made in Brussels, he alluded to a case I have raised repeatedly. He said that judges do not want to evict people in reference to a case I raised with him. I was in court with a family who were evicted last Friday from the house they have lived in all their lives. The judge gave them a six-month stay, but legally felt compelled to evict that working family with children. They were told by the local authority that they were not eligible for the cost rental scheme and that there was no such scheme. We spoke to approved housing bodies and so on.

Are the details of the scheme going to be released? Will local authorities be given clear instruction that the scheme is to commence and to do things on a proactive basis rather than looking for excuses not to take action? We need that commitment and a lot more. We need to protest against this rotten decision. In its mitigation measures, the Government should at least give details to local authorities so that they have some chance of making a difference.

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