LAST UPDATE | 20 Mar 2023

THE COALITION LEADERS have reached a “broad agreement” on issuing a counter motion to Sinn Féin’s planned Dáil motion on Wednesday, which is calling for the eviction ban to be extended.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste Micheál Martin and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan held a “good meeting” this evening, according to government sources, with broad agreement reached on a counter motion.

It is understood that the final details of the counter motion will be completed in advance of tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting, while work is understood to be continuing on detailing some of the measures underway to assist the rental sector and helping to prevent homelessness.

The Sinn Féin motion states that Ireland “remains in the midst of a housing emergency” and will call for the eviction ban to be extended until January 2024.

The motion adds that by choosing to end the eviction ban on 31 March, the government has “increased the stress and insecurity experienced by the 750,000 people, including working families, living in private rented accommodation”.

The Taoiseach has already indicated that the Government has no plans to extend the eviction ban, previously stating that he doesn’t believe reimposing the ban would reverse rising homeless numbers.

The Green Party also held its weekly parliamentary party meeting this evening, where it is understood the possibility of members voting against the Government on the motion, and possible sanctions for doing so, was not discussed.

It comes as Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan stated her intention to vote against the government when the Sinn Féin motion comes before the Dáil Wednesday.

Speaking to RTÉ yesterday, Green Party chair Pauline O’Reilly said voting with the government is “the price you pay for going into government.”

But writing in yesterday’s Sunday Independent, Hourigan said the vote is not about ideology or policy but “process [and] mindset”.

The coalition will be left with a majority of just one if Hourigan votes in favour of the Sinn Féin motion, while fellow Green Party TD Patrick Costello has also been critical of the move to end the eviction ban.

Deputy Costello has been approached by The Journal for comment. 

Waterford TD Matt Shanahan said he is reserving his position to “wait to see what additional support the government will propose between tonight and tomorrow to help stave off further evictions and to provide additional emergency accommodation”.

“They need to signal something to both,” he said.

Independent TD in Wexford Verona Murphy said she is “waiting on the government amendment” to the bill, adding “that is what we will be voting on initially” instead of the Sinn Féin motion.

The Regional Group of Independent TDs met tonight and proposed a number of amendments on housing policy to be considered by the Government.

The group said its position on the Sinn Féin motion would be dependent on the Government’s response to its proposals.  

“The objective behind our eight proposals is to secure rental accommodation, relief for landlords and affordable housing for young couples and families,” the group said. The amendments would commence from 1 May if agreed to.

They include removing barriers to older people in long term nursing home care who wish to lease out their homes, extending the rent-a-room relief scheme to people receiving social welfare payments who rent out a room and introducing a tax relief scheme in Budget 2024.

Other amendments include increasing the grant rates for the Croí Cónaithe refurbishment scheme to reflect current building costs, extending the scheme to include properties which are made available for rent and including properties built prior to 2007 in the scheme. 

The group has also called for the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) to be amended to guarantee payment to landlords where the tenant defaults on payment of contribution to HAP. 

It also called on the Government to “immediately engage with site owners who have obtained planning under the Strategic Infrastructure Development and that have not yet commenced building due to viability issues to ensure immediate commencement of these projects under the affordable housing scheme”. 

Michael Healy-Rae, Independent TD for Kerry, confirmed today on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that he will be voting to extend the eviction ban.

Explaining his decision on RTÉ this morning, Healy-Rae said: “It’s in the absence of any other sensible proposal because the government has not used the time during the last ban to do anything.”

However, he added: “The proposers of this motion, Sinn Féin, have done nothing to help the housing market, only to hurt it as well.

“The continuous demonisation of people who own properties and rent them out is resulting in the lesser and lesser supply of housing being out there on the market.”

He also claimed that Sinn Féin is “kicking the can down the road further” and that an extension to the ban “isn’t a magic bullet”.

Healy-Rae said he is voting to extend the ban because he is “fearful” of where people affected will go.

The Kerry TD has 24 properties on the Dáil register of interest, all of which are rented, and he told RTÉ that none of his tenants are facing eviction this year.

“I know so much about the market from both sides,” said Healy-Rae, “from the fact of being a person involved in it and also being a person representing people seeking housing for so many years.

“But what I do know for an absolute fact, there is so many thousands and thousands of good people who had second and third and fourth properties and were renting them out and now they’re leaving because they’re being demonised by government and by opposition.”

He claimed that the “people who shout the loudest about housing inside the Dáil are the people who in their own constituencies have objected to thousands and thousands of homes being built”.

“When I hear those people standing up and saying that they want more, but they don’t want their constituencies or outside their back door, that doesn’t make sense to me,” he added.

Additional reporting from Jane Moore