Taoiseach Leo Varadkar admitted he cannot say how many people could face eviction in the coming weeks.
He was speaking ahead of a crunch motion of no confidence in the Government next week after its decision to lift the winter eviction ban. Labour’s motion has now been replaced with a Government motion of confidence in itself that will be discussed on Wednesday morning.
Speaking in Brussels, Mr Varadkar said: “I don’t think it’s possible to have a clear or accurate number. Evictions in Ireland can only be ordered by the courts. I think people often mix up notices of termination with evictions.
Read more: Shortage of apartments to rent in Dublin as eviction ban lift looms closer
“I would expect those numbers to continue to be very small and I can guarantee you judges are reluctant to evict people into homelessness. We do need to start I think using words a bit more accurately.
"When it comes to the number of homeless people in emergency accommodation there’s sadly nearly 12,000 people in emergency accommodation. The reasons for that are manifold and it’s not simply people who’ve had notices to quit served on them.
Mr Varadkar said that the number of people in emergency accommodation has increased for a number of reasons, including family breakdowns and an increase in the number of people arriving from overseas. He also accused the Opposition of painting some cases where people are losing their homes as more straightforward than they actually are.
The Taoiseach added: “When you actually dig into the details, it can be a lot more complicated. Sometimes the person facing the notice termination has a share in the property.
“Often cases that are put across that are genuine hardship cases on the face of it may still be hardship cases, but can be complicated. Another one brought up in the Dail recently, when I looked into it turned out that the landlord who was being demonised for evicting this person was actually dead.”
Meanwhile, Justice Minister Simon Harris told RTE’s Today with Claire Byrne the Opposition was “wasting Dail time” by holding a motion of no confidence. He said: “There’s a tussle on the left and for relevance.”
Labour, Sinn Fein, the Social Democrats, Aontu and People Before Profit will also vote no confidence in the Government.
Eyes will now turn to the Independents and Neasa Hourigan, who was expelled from the Green Party for 15 months, to see how they will vote.
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