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

I said to the Taoiseach earlier that I believe his decision to lift the eviction ban was cruel, heartless, and stupid. He obviously intends, for now at least, to persist with it but we, in People Before Profit, intend to persist in campaigning for its reinstatement because thousands of people are facing eviction and potential homelessness. Our view is that people in this situation, where there is nowhere else to go, where there is no council housing available to most and where there is no affordable rental or purchase, should overhold rather than simply walk into homelessness. I refer to the people in Tathony House. A woman I am dealing with was on the radio over the weekend. She is now overholding for several days. She is working and has children and so on. Are people not right to overhold in that situation if the Government has not provided the alternatives for them, either to buy their homes so they can stay in them, or provide them with council or affordable housing? Does the Taoiseach think people are right in that situation to overhold or does he seriously expect that they should walk into homelessness if he has failed to give them an alternative of secure or affordable housing? I certainly think people will have no choice. If the Government refuses to reinstate the ban, people have little choice but to overhold until it actually delivers the alternatives.

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