Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has contended that the eviction moratorium was creating a “new form of homelessness” as the opposition criticised the Government’s decision to end the ban.
Cabinet ministers agreed on Tuesday morning that the ban would come to an end on March 31 as expected. The meeting ran over by an hour, with Education Minister Norma Foley describing the discussion on the ban as “full and frank”.
At Leaders’ Questions, Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin, Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns and Independent TD Thomas Pringle all condemned the decision to end the ban, arguing that it would increase homelessness numbers in the coming months.
READ MORE: Green TD Neasa Hourigan accuses Eamon Ryan of not representing party policy on eviction ban.
In response, the Taoiseach argued that the ban was creating a “new form of homelessness” and that it was in the “public interest” to end the ban.
He argued that keeping the ban in place would lead to homelessness numbers increasing in the long term.
Mr Varadkar said: “There was a finely balanced decision. There are pros and cons. But we made a decision which we believe is in the overall public interest.
“The moratorium was not effective in reducing homelessness. The number of homeless people being provided with emergency accommodation by the State increased every month for which the moratorium was in place.
“Secondly, it was beginning to create a new form of homelessness. People are unable to move back into a property that they own or unable to move a son or daughter into the apartment that they bought for that purpose. 20,000 to 30,000 Irish citizens return home [from abroad] every year. Most do not own their own house or apartment but many do. “Extending this for another six months or a year would not have been fair or right to them.
“We believe that leaving it in place would have reduced the availability of places to rent and would have driven up rent further. It would discourage new landlords from coming into the market.”
Mr Varadkar said that the Government accepts that the number of people in emergency accommodation could increase in the months ahead. However, he insisted that ending the ban will bring homelessness down in the “medium to long term”, while “extending it would have done the reverse”.
He also argued that the Government had brought in measures to protect renters. This includes offering private tenants the “first right of refusal” to buy a home if their landlord is selling up. An additional 1,000 social housing units will be leased by the Government.
Mr Ó Broin told the Taoiseach in the Dáil that “hundreds of people will face the prospect of losing their homes”.
He called the decision “heartless, cruel and shameful”.
He said: “From April we are not only facing an increase in people in emergency accommodation, we're facing a rise in rough sleeping and under TUSLA’s rules the prospect of families with children being referred to Garda stations for a safe place to sleep”.
Ms Cairns said it was “unbearable” to listen to Mr Varadkar “trying to defend the indefensible”.
She said: “The impact of this on individuals and families will be catastrophic. Particularly for children.”
She argued that 500 families have been “trapped in emergency accommodation for more than a year”.
Earlier on Tuesday morning, People Before Profit’s Richard Boyd Barrett said that ending the ban was “absolutely inhuman and shameful”.
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