Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

From just the last two weeks I will give three examples of people who are facing notices to quit. A man in his mid-60s is currently overholding. He only recently qualified for social housing. He is overholding by a good bit but is being allowed to convalesce from a hip replacement over the Christmas period. He will be out by January and he will most certainly end up in emergency accommodation. A nurse in her 30s who worked all through the pandemic and did whatever she could to help this country at its time of need was disqualified from social housing by being a little over the income threshold by about €1,000. She now faces a notice to quit and is looking at emergency accommodation. A mother of four, including two boys around the age of nine, is facing a notice to quit. She is not on the social housing list. She would likely qualify but it will not do her much good. Expectations are so low that her only ask is that she would be able to get emergency accommodation near enough to the school where her children go. That is all she is looking for at the minute. She has no great expectation of being offered a home at this point in time. That is how low expectations are. A no-fault eviction ban protecting tenants who have done nothing wrong and who have kept up their side of the bargain would protect and support these people. I urge the Minister to expedite this urgently. It will not solve all the problems but it can, undoubtedly, assist. The Minister talks about Sinn Féin not having policies and proposals. The Minister talks about the two pages as opposed to the 20-odd page document. I do not think the Minister believes that Sinn Féin does not have proposals. There is plenty in this legislation, and plenty in terms of what we have outlined, that can very significantly assist.

Last week the Minister instanced the Blackrock housing development, which I look forward to seeing. When the Minister comes down to see that scheme on completion, will he come 800 m down the road to look at the 16 houses that would not be there except that Sinn Féin votes were enough to get the scheme through? Fianna Fáil councillors, including Councillor Seán Martin, voted against it. When the new affordable housing scheme in Mallow is launched at some stage in the next while, perhaps the Minister will take a spin out to Kanturk to see the social housing scheme that Fianna Fáil councillors, including councillor Seamus McGrath, opposed.

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