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

I, too, am supporting the Private Members' motion regarding the suspension of the scrutiny requirement for the Eviction Ban Bill 2022 put forward by People Before Profit-Solidarity. For months now, Members of the Government have stood up in this House and have said the eviction ban did not work. We see the results now. We see more people facing eviction and more people homeless. I would like to see the Minister of State tell a family with a notice to quit that the eviction ban did not work, because the Government has taken away the last protection they had left. The reality is that the Government buried this Bill, like it buried thousands of people by lifting the eviction ban. This has become a common tactic of this Government. It buries a Bill on Committee Stage so it does not have to face the consequences of holding a vote and showing its true colours. It buried the Thirty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution (Water in Public Ownership) (No. 2) Bill 2016 that I introduced. The Government promised its own wording on a referendum to take place in November that we have seen neither sight nor sound of. It is the same with the referendum on the right to housing and the Debenhams Bill. Now, the Government is burying this Bill and letting down thousands upon thousands of renters in this country.

I, and many of my colleagues in this House, stood up here six months ago and told the Government what would happen when the eviction ban was lifted. Homelessness is up by over 1,000 and notices to quit are up 21%. That is the consequence of this Government's failure to protect renters. There are 3,873 children in emergency accommodation, up 44% since this Government took office. That is just the official figure. We know it does not include those who are not in emergency accommodation but are in hidden homelessness. That is shocking, and it is a direct result of this Government's policies and choices to legislate for the good of the big vulture funds, developers, landlords and not ordinary people, like the young woman who contacted me. She has been in emergency accommodation in Gardiner Street since May. She has a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter and an eight-year-old daughter.

There are no cooking facilities in that emergency accommodation. She cannot cook proper food for her one-and-a-half-year-old daughter. Imagine the impact that will have on her children over the next period. They are the people facing the stresses and strains of homelessness. The Government has never taken this housing crisis really seriously, treated it as an emergency and done what needs to be done.

There was underexpenditure of €1 billion in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage from 2020 to 2022. In 2022, the Government missed its affordable-purchase and cost-rental home target by 70%. This year, it has removed the ban on no-fault evictions as it writes policies to grow the rental market. Across the developed world, a long-term ban on no-fault evictions is a litmus test for a stable rental sector. Instead of having one, the Government gives us insecure tenancies, build-to-rent regulations that lead to tenement-like circumstances, and free rein for speculators to sit on empty apartments to make a profit. Now it is floating a tax relief for landlords in the budget, not using the tax system to encourage longer-term or more secure tenancies like Threshold has suggested. It wants to give away money from our public services to landlords so it does not have to face the disaster it has created in the rental market. It should get the Bill back into the committee and get it passed. It should provide renters with a no-fault eviction ban, as is standard across Europe, and keep people in their rented accommodation until public housing, cost-rental housing and affordable housing are built. At a bare minimum, it should bring the Bill back, vote on it and show the public what it really stands for. At a minimum, it should be considering the immediate introduction of a winter eviction ban.

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