Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I indicated to Deputy McDonald, we have had two temporary eviction bans in Ireland. One was introduced by the previous Government, which I led during the pandemic, and the other was introduced by this Government last year. What did we learn from those two eviction bans? At best, they reduce the number of people who are homeless in the short term. The most recent eviction ban did not even do that. Homelessness and the number of people in emergency accommodation continued to rise almost every month that the second eviction ban was in place. At best, an eviction ban reduces homelessness in the short term but probably does not even do that. What does it do? It makes the situation worse in the medium term. When the ban is lifted, there is a glut of eviction notices that then get affected. In the long term, it makes it even worse again because fewer people are willing to offer properties for rent on the private rental market. It is a policy that, at best, might work in the short term but does not always, and it make things worse in the medium and long term. For those reasons, it does not make sense for the Government to do that a third time.

What we can do is support the tenant in situ scheme, through which 1,500 homes are being bought from landlords who are selling up; provide resources for homelessness prevention to local authorities and NGOs to make sure people get the advice they need, especially if an invalid notice to quit has been served on them, which is very common; and continue to ramp up the supply of social housing. More such housing was built last year than any year since the 1970s. We will build even more this year.

See this speech in context