Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Labour Party will be supporting the Bill. I commend Deputy Ó Broin and his colleagues on bringing it forward. It is the most recent of many attempts at a sensible and compassionate approach to the growing crisis and impending cliff edge many families and renters will face starting next week. We are disappointed by the Government's decision to table an amendment virtually identical to that debated in the House last week. This amendment does little more than give cover to those Government and Independent TDs feeling the pressure in their constituencies but who will nonetheless support the Government in its indefensible action, namely, the decision to lift the eviction ban without reasonable contingencies. To borrow a phrase from the late Jim Kemmy, all this amendment does is allow certain TDs to play Mighty Mouse down in their constituencies and Mickey Mouse in Dublin. The discomfort of TDs in voting with the Government is nothing compared with the utter turmoil for families served with notices to quit who have nowhere to go. I urge the Government and the Minister of State to recognise the reasonable nature of this Bill and support the reinstatement of the eviction ban.

The long saga in the run-up to the lifting of the ban has been on of the truly depressing debates in this House. The allegations of parliamentary theatrics from the benches opposite show just how out of touch the Government is with the real anxiety being experienced by renters. Our motivation is people calling into our constituency offices telling stories of hardship and bringing Irish law into line with the norm in most European countries. We want workable solutions to make renting viable for those who want to rent or who are trapped in the private rental sector due to Government policy and locked out from homeownership. Most urgently, our motivation is keeping people out of homelessness and preventing our homeless services from collapsing. Why did the Government not use the breathing space previously available?

All of us, Government and Opposition, acknowledged that the temporary ban on no-fault evictions served two purposes when it was first introduced. The first was to give breathing space to families and renters in order to ensure that they would not face eviction over the winter. The second was to give the Government breathing space to put in place necessary measures to create an additional supply of homes to ensure that families who would be evicted once the ban was lifted would have somewhere to go and an alternative place to call home. The Government has not implemented the plans it proposed at that time. We all hear the same thing from families and individuals in our constituencies. I know the Minister of State hears it is as well, as do the agencies responsible for dealing with the homeless and local authorities - no emergency accommodation is available. This is a serious crisis. We hear about the distress and devastation. People have told devastating stories. Behind each story is an individual or family. I think of the young mother who is distraught at the prospect of moving her children out of school because she cannot find an affordable place to rent in her community once her eviction notice takes effect or the man in his 60s who asked us where he would get a mortgage because he is facing eviction. I also think of the elderly brothers who have been renting the same place for decades whose landlord now wishes to sell. They have nowhere to go. There is nowhere to rent that is affordable; there is nowhere to rent.

The Government has missed the mark with its approach to this ban. We heard from several small landlords in advance of this debate who wrote to us pleading that the ban be reinstated. Some had never written to a TD before but they felt so strongly about the Government's slowness in scaling up the tenant in situ scheme, the hasty manner in which it was announced and the lifting of the ban that they were moved to get in touch and ask that their objections to the Government's approach be raised.

I will repeat some of the stories we have heard. I know the Minister of State has received these stories too. A family of six - four children and two adults - contacted us. They have lived in the same rented home for 13 years but face imminent eviction. In the ten months since receiving their notice to quit, the parents have applied to hundreds of houses and have gone to dozens of viewings. They are due to leave on 1 April but have no home to go to.

Many of the measures we suggested when we were arguing about this matter last year - we are arguing again today - and that could have been implemented have, unfortunately, fallen on deaf ears. The initial motivation behind the Government's opposition to the eviction ban was that it was unconstitutional. Then, the Taoiseach spoke about those who owned properties and were unable to move into their own properties because of the nature of the eviction ban. As we and other Deputies across this House have constantly said, we do not accept Irish exceptionalism when it comes to the property or rental markets. Why must Ireland stand alone on tenants' rights? Why must our market be different from the mainstream European market? Why can renters here not expect fixity of tenure, fair rents and all those desires and campaigning objectives that have been here for hundreds of years when it is taken absolutely for granted across Europe?

We support this Bill. It is not radical or unusual and would not be taken to be a radical step in any other European country. It is mainstream European thought regarding renters' rights. On that basis, we are happy to support this Bill.

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