Ministers have officially signed-off on an evictions ban that will come into force next month and last until April 1st.
The Cabinet made the major decision at their weekly meeting on Tuesday afternoon with Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien bringing the proposal to his colleagues.
Mr O’Brien said after the meeting: “I feel these protections are needed for the times we are in right now.”
The law change will mean that there will be a moratorium on all evictions issued through Notices of Termination (NOTs) served from now until at least April 1st, after the coldest of the winter months have passed.
The reason there will be no evictions before the moratorium kicks-in is because if an order is issued over the next two weeks, minimum notice periods means they won’t fall due until at least November, when the moratorium will be in place.
Mr O’Brien was speaking on RTE’s News at One immediately after the Cabinet meeting finished up this afternoon, where he said: “Cabinet has recognised the exceptional times that we are in the exceptional pressure there is on our emergency accommodation right across the country for a number of reasons.
“And obviously we’ve acute pressures there and we want to make sure we can protect tenancies there through these winter months whilst also respecting fully the rights of the property owners.
“So, effectively what is in place is a temporary timeline pause on the effecting of Notices of Terminations.
“Notices to quit can still be issued but they will not take effect until, it will be scaled, but the last date will be the 18th of June, depending on the length of the tenancy.”
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