Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I might add that I am very disappointed that the Minister has left the Chamber again. I thank Deputy Ó Broin for all the work he does in respect of housing.

We find ourselves here asking the Minister of State and the Government to act urgently to prevent more families and children becoming homeless this Christmas. We are calling for the temporary reinstatement of the ban on no-fault evictions. Absolutely unacceptable figures released last week laid frighteningly bare the result of successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments' failed housing policies. A total of 139 families are facing Christmas in a hub, hostel or bed and breakfast. Over 4,000 children are without a home to call their own. Worse again, for many this is not the first time.

What a shameful accolade it is to hold that the numbers of families and children homeless under this Government's remit are at the highest since records began. Incredibly, the Government seems to have broken this, as many more families live under the threat of eviction at landlords' behest, even though they paid their rent and have done nothing wrong. If this House fails to support the Bill, the purpose of which is to reinstate the temporary ban on no-fault evictions, I will not know what to say. Every day my office is contacted by desperate people and families who are facing into Christmas and another year of homelessness. They are being shuffled from pillar to post in assorted bed and breakfasts, hostels or hubs. That is 92 families and 147 children in the mid-east region alone. They have no home and no security. They are too far down on the social housing list, and so-called affordable homes are out of their reach. They are barely able to afford extortionate rents.

Hard-working people are falling through the cracks. These people deserve a break. Reintroducing the temporary ban on no-fault evictions is the right thing to do in stopping this relentless rise in the homelessness figures. In my constituency of Kildare South, I have seen too many families suffering through homelessness. Enough is enough. Some of the people coming to me are in their 70s. They are living in fear of having nowhere else to go. It is time for change, and change is coming.

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