2026-06-25

78. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will consider a ban on no-fault eviction in light of consecutive months of record-breaking numbers of people and children in emergency accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48048/26]

We are in a wave of evictions the likes of which the country has not seen since the Famine. There is such human misery going on. I am contacted daily by people facing eviction. These are elderly people, young people and families. It is absolutely scandalous. It is the highest rate of evictions. Since Deputy Browne became Minister, 27,000 households have been issued an eviction notice. Last week, the Tánaiste came in here and said the majority of tenants are covered by a no-fault eviction ban. Will the Minister correct the record and say the truth? The majority of tenants are not covered by a no-fault eviction ban. We need an emergency no-fault eviction ban to prevent this wave of human misery.

The Deputy is very fond of referring to the Famine. The Famine was a genocide in this country. A million people died and a million people had to leave the country yet the Deputy makes a political football out of it and uses it to come in here to engage in cheap political point scoring. It is very hard to take him seriously when that is the level to which he descends in order to make a political point instead of making a coherent, informed policy point or argument. We are putting in record funding to address the housing crisis in this country. That includes the homeless crisis and high rents. We have brought in some of the strongest, if not the strongest, tenancy measures to protect tenants in the history of the State and the Deputy voted against them. That is a fact. Tenants entering new tenancies will have the strongest tenancy rights in the history of this State. The majority of tenants will have a no-fault eviction ban.

They will. They do not currently.

There will be much stronger tenant protections as well. For those who are in tenancies at the moment, both tenant and landlord entered into an agreement under what was the law at the time. They understood the law on both sides and they entered into a contract on that basis. That is the reason we are not making those changes. The Deputy tries to have it both ways when he comes in here. He criticises the changes that were made and then he criticises that they not being applied to the past. As I said, we have brought in the strongest tenancy protection measures in the history of the State. They do apply to new tenancies. While notices to quit did peak, we saw a drop in March and I have no doubt that the drop will continue significantly.

The Minister talks about me making a political football. It is an absolute disgrace. The reason I am pointing out that we have seen the highest rates of eviction since the Famine is because the Minister and this Government are completely out of touch with the human catastrophe going on right now. I do not believe that he does not see it in his own constituency. We know there was a case of evictions. I want to raise one particular case. May Kelly and her husband Michael were in touch with me. Michael is a double amputee - he had both legs amputated recently – and is a wheelchair user. He is facing eviction. They are an elderly couple who have been in their home for 20 years. They are appealing the decision from Wicklow County Council which is saying there is nothing it can do for them. They had an income assessment in 2025 which said they were over the threshold for social housing. He is now retired. They are in absolute terror. Their notice to quit says they have to be out of their home by 10 December. Will the Minister look into this specific case and implement a ban immediately to ensure that no elderly couples are being evicted from their homes when they are in situations like this?

I am not going to speak to an individual case but I am happy to look into the details of the case if the Deputy wants to provide me with them. We had an eviction ban in this country before and supply just dropped off a cliff. An eviction ban sounds very favourable to those who are currently renting but it creates a cliff edge. What is the Deputy going to do in two or three years’ time when he brings an end to his eviction ban? Supply will only go down in the meantime, as we have seen that in the past. Who will invest in delivering houses in this country when they know there are eviction bans in place? Nobody. The evidence is there that it is not going to happen. As Minister for housing, I have to look at everything in terms of how I maximise supply. When I am looking at delivering housing it is to help those people who are renting but also to ensure that we have the supply for those people who are living at home who need somewhere to rent so that they can get out of their homes and have somewhere. We have a shortage of homes in this country. That is what is driving the housing crisis, the homelessness crisis and the high rents in this country. When we get higher supply, those issues will be addressed but you cannot address them without it. That is certain.

Is it an emergency or is it not an emergency? It is not actually true that it is just about supply. These people are in homes. If the Minister put in place a ban on evictions, they could be kept in their homes until supply reaches the point where, if they are evicted, they will not be evicted into homelessness. Where are they going to be able to afford to rent? These are elderly people and other people in my constituency. Mothers with two children are contacting me in terror of being evicted and of not knowing where they are going to go. Couple after couple and family after family are in touch with me and I know they are in touch with politicians across this country. I cannot get my head around not just the Minister but the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste referring to people as "churn", and saying churn goes on. People are just evicted, and they will find somewhere else. These are real human lives. People are suffering and are being traumatised and, yes, it is about prioritising these people right now over corporate landlords who are saying they do not want an eviction ban. This is a human catastrophe, and the Minister is ignoring it at massive human cost.

Nobody is ignoring it. We are putting record funding into solving the housing crisis. Almost one third of all the capital being spent by the State is going to be spent on solving the housing crisis. It is reflected in the decisions we are making. We are treating this as an emergency and putting those measures in place. Instead of constantly coming in here using emotive language and pretending he has a monopoly on compassion, the Deputy should focus on policy solutions. It would serve everybody better to solve the housing crisis.

His policies are not serving these people.