Housing crisis ‘being ignored’ as RTÉ scandal dominates, TD says

By Rebecca Black, PA

Ireland’s housing crisis is being ignored while the RTÉ scandal “sucks all the air out of every other issues”, it has been contended.

People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Richard Boyd Barrett said while probing allegations of overpayments to top stars at the national broadcaster is important, it has overshadowed every other issue for the last three to four weeks.

“Whoever is responsible for the scandal of RTÉ overpayments should be ashamed of themselves because for three or four weeks now it has sucked all the air out of every other issue that is affecting ordinary people in this country,” he said during Leaders Questions in the Dáil.

Has the government no heart?

Nearly 13,000 people homeless - including 3,699 children - and the government says this is they best they can do? pic.twitter.com/x1B3lZDbIO

— Richard Boyd Barrett (@RBoydBarrett) July 11, 2023

Department of Housing figures for May showed 8,742 adults and 3,699 children were in emergency accommodation in Ireland in May, representing a record 12,441 people in total.

With the ending of the eviction ban earlier this year, Mr Boyd Barrett said thousands more are facing the possibility of homelessness.

He said government has failed to put in place public housing, affordable housing or some alternative to the possibility of being evicted, and urged as an emergency measure, reinstating the eviction ban.

“I just feel compelled to remind the government and indeed the media in this last week of the Dail, these issues need to be addressed and not forgotten as we head into the summer,” he said.

“What I’m asking is that the government will as an emergency measure reinstate the eviction ban, bring in the first refusal policy as an emergency piece of legislation and address the anomalies in the tenant in situ scheme to prevent more families being made homeless over the summer.”

Responding, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said there is no plan to reintroduce the eviction ban, saying it did not work.

He said at a Cabinet meeting that morning, there were 67 items on the agenda, and more of those are about housing than about RTÉ.

“We as a government spend a lot more time concerned about the housing crisis than we do about RTÉ, important as that issue is, and I can give you that reassurance,” he said.

Mr Varadkar said the latest Housing for All, Q2 2022 Progress Report published on Tuesday morning showed that the number of new homes being built is up and the number of commencements is up and the number of planning permissions being granted is up by 40 per cent on this time last year.

He said they are confident they are going to exceed the housing target for the year.

“A lot of progress is being made, but I don’t for a second, argue that it’s enough or that there isn’t a lot more that we need to do and the really dark end, the most difficult end of the housing crisis is of course homelessness is the fact that there are roughly 12,000 people being provided with state emergency accommodation at the moment,” he said.

“We are lifting more people out of homelessness than ever before.

“That figure is rarely talked about, more people being lifted out of homelessness by governments than ever before.”