Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I echo the call regarding the post office in Caherconlish. One of the things that amazed me as I was getting into this issue this week is that Caherconlish has doubled its population in the last decade to 1,500 people so it is hard to understand how a post office there would not be viable. It would be great if the Leader would be kind enough to write to the Minister to see what else can be done to support the people of Caherconlish.

The key issue I want to speak on today is housing. I found it chilling to hear that last Monday in Limerick alone, some 80 eviction notices were received by the homeless action team there. From speaking to colleagues, this is not uncommon across the country and there has been a huge rise in eviction notices. The people we are speaking to who deal with housing in Limerick have never been more concerned, and that is saying something given the last few years we have been through.

The following point is not party political; I hope it is just a common sense point. We need to declare a housing emergency and put a ban on evictions. Things are already extremely bad and despite the best efforts in spin, things are getting worse and not better. If one takes the time to speak to officials, particularly the officials in Limerick, they will confirm that. We have a perfect tsunami of massive evictions and a 15% rise in rents in Limerick, and we have a ridiculously low threshold such that if one earns more than €32,500 one does not even qualify for social housing. People are trapped in a rental market that is getting ever more vicious with the rise in rents.

We have a terrible situation with the Shannon Arms property with 150 people, including 60 families, being made homeless by landlords. They say they will do up the properties on a big scale but we also see that when they have gotten rid of tenants they have brought new ones in at even more extortionate rents, particularly exploiting foreign nationals. This again points to the fact that we do not have proper tenant rights in this country. I would seriously ask my Government colleagues what it is that they see wrong with Irish tenants that they will not give them the same rights that are enjoyed across most of Europe regarding security of tenure. We are in a housing emergency and I am calling for an urgent debate on the matter. I am genuinely concerned at what we will say to people in the coming weeks in Limerick.