Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Fine Gael gives tax breaks to real estate investment trusts and the biggest landlords in this State yet Members come in here and claim to stand up for small landlords of whom most pay over 50% on rental incomes. So I am not going to listen to either Fine Gael claim to stand up for small landlords or blame Sinn Féin for the housing crisis. Sinn Féin seeks to introduce a ban on evictions precisely because of failures by the Government and Fine Gael.

I was 19 years of age when Fine Gael entered Government. We are still here and this is their crisis. The latest figures for August show that there are 10,800 adults and children in emergency accommodation funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. That is the highest level ever recorded since modern reporting methods were introduced. Sinn Féin has pointed out that the real figure for emergency accommodation is closer to 16,000 when one takes into account the following: 4,500 people trapped in direct provision but have a legal right to stay in this country; the number of rough sleepers; and the number of women and children in Tusla-funded centres who have fled domestic and sexual-based violence.

We are experiencing the worst housing crisis in the history of the State and it has gotten consistently worse since the Minister took up office. The targets are too low and, worse again, the Government has failed to meet its own targets. In 2020, the Government missed its targets by 25% and last year, in 2021, the Government missed its target to provide social and affordable homes by 30%. All of that is the reason so many people are homeless tonight and the reason the number has increased. So, 5,969 social homes should have been built under the targets set but the Government has failed to deliver and not even met its own low targets.

We are now trying to introduce a ban on winter evictions and Sinn Féin supports this Bill. Indeed, we have called for the ban for some months and we also wanted a temporary ban on winter evictions. The fact that a ban is needed is a mark of Government housing failure. A ban on evictions would give tenants some breathing space but will not fix the problem. We need immediate action to increase the supply of social and affordable homes over the next five months, otherwise we will be back in the same place in April.

We need more action on tenants in situ, vacancies and high-quality modular homes. We also need to cut the red tape encountered by councils and approved housing bodies as it reduces delivery. The Government's legislation also needs to be amended to provide protection to tenants whose termination date falls before 1 November. Finally, we need to remove the overcrowding provision and Sinn Féin has tabled amendments alongside other Opposition groups to do just that.

This ban has been opposed by Members of these Houses for a long time. Members of these Houses have been dragged kicking and screaming into a ban on evictions. Housing protests and Raise the Roof have given people around these Houses food for thought. We were told that a ban was unconstitutional but it is not. In fact, a ban is long overdue and we will be supporting the Bill. We hope that our amendments, particularly amendment No. 9, will be accepted. The Government must do a great deal more to ensure that we are not in exactly the same position next year.