Evictions and Rent Hikes: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-19
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Sorca Clarke (SF), Longford-Westmeath

I am going to call this out for what it is, which is an abject failure of renters the length and breadth of this State. The Government's amendment is absolutely tone-deaf. It is the most layered piece of political spin I have ever seen put on paper. There have been 7,000 eviction notices in just three months, which is the highest number ever recorded. Thousands of families are living in fear and panic as they wonder where exactly they are going to go. What does the Minister do? He comes in with an amendment that reads like it was written by the investment funds rather than a Government presiding over record rents, record evictions and record homelessness and an entire generation locked out of the hope of ever owning their own home. The Government congratulates itself on rent controls while rent in Westmeath has soared by over 11%. Perhaps the most disgraceful part of it is the attempt to downplay the soaring evictions by claiming the trend is moderating. I ask the Minister to come to my constituency and talk to the 84-year-old man, talk to the new mother with a two-week-old baby who is in emergency accommodation and talk to the woman who is effectively overholding in a domestic violence refuge with her two kids with additional needs. They were meant to be out yesterday but there is nowhere for her to go. Literally nothing is available to her.
The Minister is completely detached from the reality facing ordinary people. He measures success as investor confidence and market activity but ordinary people measure success by having a roof over their heads and food on the table. That is the level of pressure families are under. Forget about the holiday. Forget about the car. They just want a roof. They just want to be able to afford the rent and put food on the table for their families, and lord knows they work hard enough to be able to afford those very basic things. Then the Minister has the audacity to tell people his housing policy is working. He should stand in any local authority building and look at the people presenting as homeless. They are countless and they come from all sectors of society. This Government has failed each and every one of them and the Minister should be ashamed for standing in here and trying to tell us his broken policy is working and he should be ashamed for every person who is standing in a homeless queue.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:46+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-19