Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

When this Government decided to lift the eviction ban at the end of last month, it made a decision to allow a level of homelessness that would have been thought unconscionable before. We have had so many people in our office in the past month with notices to quit, people from all walks of life facing eviction with nowhere to go. They face eviction because it is Government policy now. They are losing their homes because of Government housing policy. It voted to end the eviction ban with eyes wide open, knowing that it would affect thousands of people and families. It voted knowing that it had not done nearly enough to provide supports or resources for those people, nor provided nearly enough emergency accommodation or alternative housing for them to fall back on. The RTB stated that it received 9,000 active notices to quit due to the lifting of the eviction ban. The estate agents, Sherry Fitzgerald, estimate 15,000 tenancies this year will be lost. The councils admit they have little or no emergency accommodation places left. The Simon Community and other NGOs say their services are already stretched and even if they got more money for beds, to get professional teams around those beds would be very difficult at this point. Meanwhile this Government has more than €1.5 billion capital budget unspent in the housing budget, a €5 billion budget surplus unspent, a €10 billion surplus this year and €15 billion next year. It missed last year’s affordable homes target and provided a fraction of what is needed. Half a million adults still live with their parents, that is one in ten adults or 350,000 people aged between 20 and 35 live at home. The Government has led this country down the garden path. It allowed the housing crisis to reach breaking point, then took away the eviction ban, one of the last barriers to thousands of people facing eviction. Its targets and promises are not delivering what is needed and certainly mean nothing to young families coming into my office distraught, facing homelessness and left with nowhere to go.

A young woman rang me today. She is a nurse in the Children’s Health Ireland hospital in Crumlin. She rents in the Drimnagh area. She said her landlord told her this morning that she has to leave, and asked me what she can do. I advised her to come down to our offices and bring the notice to quit. She asked “what is that?” She had not a clue what it was and did not even receive a notice to quit. The landlord told her to leave.

The Labour Party spoke earlier about the ESRI proposal to get construction workers from abroad. We would do better to keep our construction workers here. We had a young man in recently who lives in a car. He bought the car with the deposit for the apartment he hoped to get. Now he is thinking of emigrating to Britain. Before, I would have said the Government does not have a clue about what is going on but now I believe it is worse - it knows exactly what it is doing. It voted for this, this is the Government's housing plan, the Government's policy led to this level of homelessness and desperation and now ordinary people face the consequences. I support the Private Members' motion and thank Deputy Ó Broin for putting it forward.

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