Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Social Democrats, I send our best wishes to Noel Murphy and thank him for all his years of public service,

The Taoiseach has put very misleading information into the public domain about the courts and eviction notices. He stated that it is "very, very rare" that a judge would evict an individual family into homelessness. However, solicitors specialising in housing law working at the coalface supporting renters have said they do not know of any cases at all in Ireland where a judge sided with renters facing homelessness and did not grant an eviction order. There were none, not a single case. The chief executive of Free Legal Advice Centres, FLAC, Ms Eilis Barry, said she is worried that the comments from the Taoiseach have given people false hope. Ms Barry stated that neither the courts nor the Residential Tenancies Board have any discretion or the ability to take humanitarian grounds such as illness, disability or age into consideration.

Does the Tánaiste agree that it is very important that renters facing eviction are given accurate advice and information? Will he ask the Taoiseach to withdraw his highly misleading comments, which do not reflect reality of what is happening on the ground and, indeed, do not reflect the reality of what is legally permissible?

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