Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

There are 3,000 households with notices to quit against their names. The Government has fired the starting gun for those evictions to begin this weekend. Where are people going to go? Nobody knows for certain. The Taoiseach wore a cloak of certainty when he said last week that the majority of people will not knock on the door of homeless services for emergency accommodation. I suspect he is probably right. Why would they go to homeless services? What they will do in the main is beg friends and family to put them up, even if it is only for a couple of weeks.

They will keep their fingers crossed that they can get sorted within a couple of weeks, but for many of them, they still will not be sorted out within a matter of months. I am certain from the feedback I am getting that at the very least there is a significant minority who will knock on the door of homeless services, and there is a disproportionate number of families with kids who will be forced to do that, because they do not have the space to stay with family and friends. Will the emergency homeless services be able to put people up? In some places they will, but we know that in other places they will not. Some 17 out of 31 councils have said they are full up. This issue is not going to go away. It is going to drag on and re-emerge. We are going to see a situation long before the summertime of families, including those with children, presenting to Garda stations and asking to be put up for the night as they have nowhere to go.

I want to make three points about this. First, I appeal to people who are faced with eviction into homelessness to seriously consider the option of overholding - staying past their due date. It is not a criminal offence. If tenants are in dispute with their landlord the case will go to the Residential Tenancies Board, which could drag on for a considerable period. Second, I appeal to people to join the protest that is taking place this Saturday, and any other protest that is taking place anywhere in the country. The Government needs to continue feeling the pressure on this issue.

This is an issue for individuals in the sense that the stress bears down on individuals and their families, but it must become an issue for communities, where there needs to be a discussion about solidarity and helping one's neighbours. I would love to see a situation where communities would resist these evictions in the weeks and months to come in an organised, peaceful, and disciplined way. I will leave it at that.

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