Paul Murphy: Urges Eviction Ban as Homelessness Hits Families
Paul Murphy warned that two and a half thousand children will be homeless this Christmas in Ireland and highlighted families living in hotels and emergency accommodation. He urged the government to pass a bill giving renters three months to find a home and to introduce a people for profit anti-eviction ban to secure tenants.
Scale and immediate impact
He described two and a half thousand children living in hotels and emergency accommodation, some for a second consecutive Christmas, and families with no kitchen or dinner table. He said others have a roof but face eviction notices and cannot afford alternative accommodation when notices become due at the start of next year.
Evidence from an eviction ban
Murphy cited an earlier eviction ban as a real-world experiment that reduced homelessness quickly, and noted that when the ban was lifted homeless numbers rose the following month. He used that sequence to argue the link between eviction protection and lower homelessness figures.
The bill and proposed protections
He welcomed the bill as a small step that would give tenants three months to find alternative housing before being evicted. He urged implementing the people for profit anti-eviction ban to provide renters with real security of tenure.
Political criticism and call for mass action
Murphy accused the government of failing renters, calling them a government of Scrooges who do not care about tenants. He concluded that only a mass movement and a housing protest in spring will force the government to act.
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Two and a half thousand children will be homeless this Christmas in Ireland. Children living in hotels, in emergency accommodation, families with no kitchen to cook in, no dinner table to gather around. And for some of them, it will be the second Christmas in those conditions. Tough memories that we know from multiple reports now will stick with them for their life. There are others, people who I am dealing with, who have a home, who have a roof over their heads, but they have an eviction notice facing them. They are unable to find anywhere that they can afford when the eviction notice becomes due at the start of next year. And they are facing homelessness, unless the government takes action. And all the bill, which I very much welcome, seeks to do is to give them a chance, to give them three months to find a home before being thrown out on the street. It is one small step that could be taken. The government says, we don't lack in will, we are going to do something about it, we are going to do government this and that. But the truth is, the point has been made. The government has been in power. It could have done this at any point in the past. And if they do do it, well, I will believe it when they see it. We had before us an experiment, if you like, a laboratory test of what is one very simple way you can reduce homelessness, because we introduced an eviction ban. And what happened when we introduced an eviction ban, the numbers of homeless people in this country dropped quite rapidly, didn't drop to nothing, but it dropped quite rapidly. And then the eviction ban was lifted at the behest of the landlords and under the guise of the constitution. And what happened? The homeless numbers began to rise immediately, the month after the eviction ban was lifted. So we know what needs to be done, which is to implement, for example, the people for profit anti-eviction ban to give renters real security of tenure. The final point I will make is that we have a government of Scrooges who don't care about renters. According to Dickens, it took three ghostly visits to get Ebeneezer Scrooge to see the error of his ways. There is no sign of such a recognition by the government. The only thing that will force them to recognise the problem, to do something about it, is the mass movement. We need a mass protest on housing in spring. Chair, I want to talk there but it you right
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