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

One of the reasons whoever is responsible for the scandal of RTÉ overpayments should be ashamed of themselves is because for three or four weeks now it has sucked all the air out of every other issue affecting ordinary people, who often struggle with intense hardship and difficulty in their lives. Before the Dáil finishes for the summer recess at the end of this week, one of the issues that has tragically been overshadowed by what is happening in RTÉ – what is happening in RTÉ is an important issue, do not get me wrong – is the most acute crisis that we continue to face. We now have more families, children and individuals in homelessness in the State than we have ever had on record at 12,441, a number that shamefully includes 3,699 children. Thousands more are facing the possibility of homelessness because of the Government’s decision to lift the eviction ban and its failure to provide public housing, affordable housing or some alternative when someone who has done nothing wrong is evicted. I feel compelled to remind the Government and the media on this last week of the Dáil that these issues need to be addressed and not forgotten as we head into the summer.

The residents of Tathony House were going to come to Leinster House today, but they are so stressed and depressed about their situation that, at the last minute, they could not bring themselves to do so. Their landlord is evicting them on grounds of sale. Despite the tenant in situpolicy, he has ignored all contacts from Dublin City Council about the possibility of buying the apartment complex to stop those people being evicted. The Government said that it was going to bring in a first refusal policy to deal with what on the face of it is a landlord who was cruel and inhumane and who does not care about the stress, hardship, fear and terror that the families in Tathony House were suffering.

I have just heard of another case in Swords where people are being evicted from 47 homes, apparently on the grounds that their Part 4 tenancies are over. We are hearing from all over the place of councils finding excuses not to purchase properties where families are facing eviction. The latest reason is the fact that there are management fees in multi-unit complexes.

I ask that the Government, as an emergency measure, reinstates the eviction ban, introduces the first refusal policy as emergency legislation-----

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