A local TD says it’s hard to have confidence in a government that isn’t even confident in its own decision-making.
Martin Browne was reacting to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s admission this morning that the government wasn’t aware of the ‘exact number’ of termination notices issued prior to its decision to end the eviction ban.
This comes following the national figures published by the RTB showing over 4,300 notices to quit were issued in the last three months of 2022.
In Tipperary, there were 92 issues in quarter 4 of 2022, with the total number of notices to quit standing at 230 now in the Premier, according to Deputy Browne.
The Sinn Féin TD says the government was warned that this would happen.
“I don’t know what planet they’re living on because they’ve been warned about this for months and months. To come out with that kind of statement is really unbelievable at this stage. They hadn’t even confidence in the decision that they’d made. We have ministers, department officials, and special advisors. You would wonder, in this day and age, how someone could come out and say that they made this kind of decision without knowing the full extent of the problem. They admitted themselves that it was going to increase a small bit, but at this stage they don’t even seem to know what they’re doing, and they don’t seem to be putting any plan in place.”
Deputy Browne is of the view that the homeless crisis has gotten to the point where people sofa-surfing or back at their parents houses will be the lucky ones
He says last week, within 24 hours of the eviction ban being lifted, 20 families were hit with notices to quit in Tipperary, who now struggle to find somewhere to go.
He confirmed that this is a mixture of single people and families with children, and says they will now have to compete with people already on housing lists or seeking emergency accommodation.
The Sinn Féin representative says this, along with HAP’s inability to cover rising rent prices, will result in increasing hidden homeless figures and people sleeping rough.
He told Tipp FM that there is complete uncertainty across the board.
“We’re going to finish up with people back sofa-surfing, back in the back box rooms of their mother and father’s home house, and some people are going to finish up, a lot of them will finish up, sleeping rough again. Surely in 2023, when they’ve had a chance with the first eviction ban and done nothing, they should reinstate it at this stage and start putting some of these measures in place that avoid anybody having to sleep rough again. There’s total uncertainty out there, from the people that are getting the notices to the councils and to the homeless services themselves, there’s total uncertainty about what can and can’t be done.”
