Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)

I thank all of those across the House who supported Labour's important motion on Gaza today and I thank the Government for not opposing it. I look forward to working with the Government and the Opposition to bring about an end to the suffering and genocide being perpetrated upon the people of Gaza. Ireland has shown leadership but we can do more. We want to work constructively and collectively to do so.

I will raise the issue of housing with the Taoiseach. This Friday, the latest homelessness figures will be published but the Taoiseach's Government is already presiding over a shameful record. There are currently 15,378 people, including 4,675 children, in homelessness. Each number reflects a personal tragedy and a State failure. Evictions from the private sector are driving increased numbers. More homes are urgently needed to address this housing and homelessness crisis but, under the Government's watch, house building commencements are not rising but falling, no-fault evictions are continuing and, worse again, the Government is gutting the tenant in situ scheme, sowing uncertainty about its future. This scheme was supposed to save families from an eviction cliff edge. Applications to the scheme are mired in bureaucracy. It is soul-destroying for people because they know that most of them are doomed to fail. This is true across the country. For example, in the Limerick City and County Council area, more than 107 tenant in situ cases are now on hold. I understand from my colleague Deputy Conor Sheehan that only 20 to 25 such cases, which is a drop in the ocean, are likely to be completed this year. Desperate people are applying when facing eviction, wasting precious time that could be spent searching for somewhere else to live. That policy failure has consequences. Every time we stand in this House, we must recall that the policies we discuss do not exist in a vacuum. They impact on real people, our constituents, neighbours and friends.

I will refer to a letter Deputy Conor Sheehan has shared from a constituent of his. She is a healthcare worker and mother of three. She and her family have lived in their home for nearly 20 years but they are renters and received an eviction notice last year. For months, she attempted to secure her family's future by applying to the cost-rental tenant in situ scheme but the Housing Agency dropped her case just weeks ago. She in ineligible for social housing, the housing assistance payment or the local authority home loan. She cannot apply for the first-time buyer's scheme or the fresh start scheme. She cannot overhold because a criminal conviction would ruin her career. In her heart-breaking letter, she said:

I am still just 2 weeks away from homelessness [...] Everybody has been very kind [...] but nobody is coming back to me with any answers or hope for me and my family. I don’t know what to do.

There are many other families like this who face a cliff edge the Taoiseach promised they would not see. It is an indictment of Government policy. It is in cases like this that the tenant in situ scheme should apply. The Government has been in office for five months and the Taoiseach and his new Minister for housing have done nothing to address the crisis facing this family and others. What will the Taoiseach do for those now facing eviction?

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