The end of the eviction ban will lead to more homeless and more deaths - Tóibín

The ending of the eviction ban will lead to more homeless people and more deaths, according to Deputy Peader Tóibín.

Speaking in the Dáil today (Tuesday) after it was announced that the eviction ban would not be extended beyond the end of the month, Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín stated:

“Nearly 400 people have died in homelessness in five years just in Dublin, the figure is far higher nationally, but your government doesn’t feel the need to measure the number of people dying around the country in homelessness.

"Heartbreakingly, these statistics do not include those sleeping rough. A total of 11,754 people are homeless, over 3,000 are children. Some of these children are spending their third St Patricks Day living in a hotel room. This will change their lives and not for the better. It will damage their nutrition, their education, their mental health and their socialisation. The decision you have made today to lift the eviction ban will create more homeless families and more homeless children of that we can be sure.

“Many thousands of families are living at the edge of eviction will be petrified tonight at the thought that you have taken down their last protection. There has been an effort by the government to blame the eviction ban for the rising level of homeless people. This is s a nonsense. There are 160,000 empty homes throughout the state. Your government still hasn’t managed to implement the vacant home tax or provide a workable grant system to get homes back into use. Hundreds of homes are being used for AirBnBs. Families are living in hotels and tourists are staying in homes. This is the mixed up, muddled up world of this government.

“Cabinet has agreed to give in situ tenants first refusal to buy their home if it's being sold. We are told that there will be a Local Authority purchase alternative for in situ tenants also. Why not delay the ending of the eviction ban until you have delivered on these objectives? If there is threat of a flight of landlords why not reform the taxation system that they are operating within? Why are REITs paying less tax for each euro rent received than a Mom and Pop landlord? It does not make sense."