Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There have been a large number of contributions and I acknowledge them. The Government will oppose the Bill which Sinn Féin has tabled. The Minister has moved a reasoned amendment to that effect.

If someone is watching this debate and they are about to be made homeless what do they want to know? I will deal with what I believe are the facts. Why are we not supporting Sinn Féin’s Bill? It is because we fundamentally disagree that the eviction ban should be continued. We were quite honest when we announced the ban that it would conclude at the end of March. We are basically going with that commitment. Sinn Féin's Bill could have consequences. We believe that too many private landlords are leaving the market. People have spoken about them. Nine out of ten landlords in Ireland are small landlords. They are not the big landlords. Some 13,500 of them left the market last year. That is too many to lose.

Deputy McNamara said we do not have enough houses. I agree. We all agree with that. We have a plan. We built 30,000 units last year. We had over 9,000 social housing units back in 2021. Deputy Joan Collins might not agree but we have built a significant amount of social houses again this year and it is the largest number since 1975. We believe that the Sinn Féin Bill would bring about three times more people receiving eviction notices than now. It does not allow for someone selling a house because they are in financial distress or someone coming back from abroad to reclaim their house or people who bought a house to send their family to college.

If people get an eviction notice, what is there for them at the moment? The first port of call is to go to their local authority-----

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