Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A total of 17 applications under the tenant in situ scheme have been suspended in Waterford. This involves 17 families grappling with significant uncertainty and anxiety not knowing if they will have a roof over their heads this year. That sorry story is replicated in the hundreds all across the State.

The moves by Government to reduce funding and restrict the tenant in situ scheme will lead to children, women and men becoming homeless right across the State. Some 15,280 people are availing of State-provided emergency accommodation, which is a 13% increase on last year, and this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the real homeless figures. The Government seems to be hell-bent on sending still more of our people into homelessness by restricting this scheme. Every week in Dungarvan and in my clinics around County Waterford, I meet families and individuals who have been served with a notice to quit. The only solace they have - indeed the only thing between them and homelessness - has been the tenant in situ scheme. When Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil shamelessly lifted the no-fault eviction ban in 2023, the story spun was that the tenant in situ scheme would ensure nobody became homeless as a result. While the scheme on its own could never hope to mitigate the abject failure of the Government's housing policy - remember homelessness increased by 15% in 2023 - it did offer protection to many vulnerable families facing eviction through no fault of their own.

We know the scheme can work when it is allowed to. Arguably, it is one of the few schemes instituted by the Government that has actually worked yet it has been paused for months and will be restricted and potentially wound down. Will the Minister change course from this disastrous approach, fully fund the tenant in situ scheme for 2025 and give local authorities the resources and maximum flexibility to operate it?

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