Sinn Féin has said it will target Government backbenchers and Independent TDs in an effort to convince them to vote for its Dáil motion on extending the eviction ban until 2024 next week.
Warning of a “human catastrophe” arising from the end of the eviction ban, Dublin Mid-West TD Eoin Ó Broin, the party’s housing spokesman, published the text of the party’s motion on Tuesday morning.
It calls for the emergency ban to be extended until the end of January next year, as well as an overhaul of existing social housing schemes and the use of emergency planning powers to build and refurbish more homes.
“It’s our intention to speak to everybody we can to try to get them to support us,” he said.
Asked if that included Government TDs, he said the party would “speak or attempt to speak to anybody we think could and should support this motion” but added that neither he nor anyone else from Sinn Féin had yet spoken to any Government backbenchers about the motion.
“We’ll be endeavouring to talk to everybody, not just on the Government side or in the Independents, but in the Opposition, to secure the maximum possible support.”
He said he did not care about anyone’s political background, and would approach everyone in the Dáil.
“Irrespective of whether we agree with somebody’s politics or political background, families who are currently homeless or who are at risk of homelessness need the support of every possible TD in the Oireachtas and we’ll do everything we can to get that support,” Mr Ó Broin said.
He agreed this would include Independent Tipperary TD Michael Lowry – who was convicted of a tax offence in 2018.
Mr Ó Broin said he was making a “personal appeal” to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Micheál Martin, who are in the United States on St Patick’s Day visits:
“What are you saying to the families, what are you saying to the single people, the couples, the parents with children, the pensioners who will have nowhere to go come the first of April?”
“What is your advice to them, what are your directions to them, what is the support you’re providing to them in those days and weeks in April, May and June? So far, I haven’t heard anything either from Government or particularly from the Taoiseach or the Tánaiste.”
Asked why Sinn Féin was not bringing forward legislation, rather than a non-binding motion, Mr Ó Broin said the Dáil had passed legislation he wrote on several occasions only for it to get bogged down at committee stage due to Government opposition.
“What matters is votes,” he said, appealing directly to Independents and Government backbenchers to “vote with us”. He said the Government could abstain on the motion, or choose to amend it, but either way there would be a vote next Tuesday.
“It makes no difference whether this is a Bill or a motion, what matters is that people actually vote,” he told reporters on the Leinster House plinth on Tuesday morning.
Breathing space
Asked whether Sinn Féin was playing politics with a motion that would have no substantive impact even if it passed, he said the purpose of the motion was to “put pressure on Government”, arguing that was a “legitimate and reasonable thing for us to do”.
Mr Ó Broin argued that pressure on the Government had forced it to concede more politically contentious issues in the past, including on legislation addressing the issue of defective blocks.
The ban on evictions, he said, would give people breathing space but needed to be accompanied by emergency measures – such as building modular homes for people facing homelessness, reforming the tenant-in-situ scheme and more extensive use of emergency planning powers.
He said he believed an additional 1,000 to 2,000 units could be brought on stream using emergency planning powers during the extended ban – but acknowledged that it was “enormously ambitious”.
If changes to the tenant in situ purchase scheme were put in place there could be “several thousand” more homes bought. Mr Ó Broin said this would have to go hand in hand with a massive extension of the building and purchase of social and affordable housing – which is also sought by the Sinn Féin motion.
He said emergency accommodation was “at breaking point” and in many cases full. “If you took those measures you would ease the pressure. Clearly, you’re not going to solve the crisis in this way, solving the housing crisis requires a much broader set of measures.”
Mr Ó Broin said, however, that “stable rental markets” do not generally allow evictions on the grounds of sale, but only for breach of contract. “What’s being proposed here is pretty modest in terms of comparable European systems,” he said.
Tax breaks for landlords, he said, would not work to solve the crisis as the majority of them are leaving the market for reasons other than tax.
