North Kildare eviction case
Réada Cronin described a family facing eviction and argued the housing crisis is leaving working people trapped and unsupported. The Taoiseach defended the temporary eviction ban’s expiry, warned that extending it would worsen supply, and advised the family to seek housing advice; he later noted that if the landlord has several homes, the notice may not be valid.
The Government's housing policy is wreaking havoc on renters in north Kildare. The dad of one family who now works in the private sector was a member of our Defence Forces. He tells me he feels totally undefended by this Government. Following a notice to quit, he feels that he is in no-man's land, abandoned by the State of the uniform he wore. His wife works in homeless services. After they both took on every scrap of overtime they could to make rent after an illegal 50% rent hike, their income is over the limit for the housing list. Their landlord is not selling. He says he intends to move into the house, which is one of several he owns, so they cannot avail of any of the Government's eleventh hour schemes. They are currently overholding as they have nowhere to go. I ask the Taoiseach to put himself in that man's position. Can he imagine the stress that family is living through? On all the evidence, the Government is failing. It is completely indifferent to the humanitarian disaster its housing policy has caused. Does he agree that the no-fault eviction ban must be reinstated or does he want trauma and hopelessness to be the legacy of his Government?
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I think I have answered this question before. The temporary winter eviction ban was always a temporary winter eviction ban, giving people more time to find alternatives. We believe that Sinn Féin's policy of extending it for another few months will only mean that more and more notices of termination will mount up, that fewer properties will be available-----
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It would give the Government time to create or build those houses.
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-----and more people will be competing for even fewer houses. It would make the situation worse-----
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-----just at a later point.
I do not want to comment on individual cases because there is always more to them than can be put across in the space of a minute or two in the Dáil but I would certainly advise the Deputy's constituent to seek advice, perhaps from the council or from Threshold. The Deputy seems to contend that the landlord is not going to move back into the house-----