The eviction ban must be extended until the end of the year and emergency action taken to tackle rising homelessness.
That's according to Cavan/Monaghan Sinn Fein TD, Deputy Pauline Tully, who was speaking ahead of the party's motion on the issue which is being debated in the Dail today.
She said renters needed security and because of the Government's plan to end the evection ban at the end of this month, she was extremely concerned about the number of families and individual renters in Cavan, Monaghan and north Meath who will face homelessness if it's not extended.
Deputy Tully pointed out that in Cavan average year-on-year rents have increased by 19.8% while Monaghan has seen rents increase by 15.9% and in Meath rents have rose by 11.9%. She added that one family in the Constituency was recently hit with an 80% increase in their monthly rent which saw it rise from €700 to €1,250. That is why Sinn Féin has tabled a motion this week calling on Government to extend the eviction ban until the end of the year.
But we are calling on it to do much more than that. It needs to make the kind of emergency interventions we have called for to increase and accelerate the delivery of social and affordable homes. The Government also needs to introduce emergency planning and procurement powers, and utilise modern building technologies on vacant buildings and deliver modular homes' "The Government must recognise that we are in a housing emergency and that an emergency plan must be put in place," said Deputy Tully.
