Oireachtas

Couple expecting first child have ‘no choice but to sleep in their car’, Dáil told

Sinn Féin leader says more than 4,000 children will wake up on Christmas morning in a hub, hostel or B&B

Mary Lou McDonald has told the Dáil of a couple, pregnant with their first child, who may be forced to live in a car after being served with an eviction notice.
Sarah Burns
Wed Dec 13 2023 - 13:09

A couple expecting their first child believe they have “no choice but to sleep in their car” after being served with an eviction notice, the Dáil has been told.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the couple have “desperately searched” for alternative rented accommodation but to no avail and now “face the prospect of being homeless at Christmas”.

Speaking during Leaders’ Questions on Wednesday, Ms McDonald said the couple, Damien and Amy, feel “angry, broken and terrified”.

“Damien and Amy say they will have no choice but to sleep in their car,” she said.

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Ms McDonald was urging TDs to support her party’s proposed legislation, the Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) (No 2) Bill 2023, with a vote taking place this evening. The Bill would implement an immediate and temporary ban on no-fault evictions until the end of March, with the Government stating it was opposing the legislation.

Ms McDonald pointed to the latest research from the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), which says renters cite affordability and security of tenure amongst their top concerns.

The Sinn Féin leader said the homelessness crisis has “never been worse” and that more than 4,000 children would wake up on Christmas morning in a hub, hostel or B&B.

“For many of these children it will be their third or even fourth visit from Santa in emergency accommodation,” she said. “No child or family should spend Christmas this way, each child deserves a place they call home.”

Ms McDonald shared a number of personal stories of families facing no-fault evictions, including a woman and her five-year-old daughter who are due to be evicted from their home on New Year’s Day.

She also spoke of a couple, Barry and Eimear, who face eviction with their new baby.

“Eimear says the experience has taken a serious toll on their mental health and has left Barry, who’s a hard-working committed frontline worker feeling defeated as a father,” she said. “They both feel betrayed as working tax-paying citizens.”

In response, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said while Christmas was a great time for most people, it was a very stressful period for others, including the 13,000 people in emergency accommodation.

However, Mr Varadkar said the solution put forward by Sinn Féin was not the correct one. The Fine Gael leader said introducing a no-fault eviction ban until the end of March would result in a “glut of evictions” next April, May and June which would be “even harder to deal with”.

Mr Varadkar said when the last temporary eviction ban was introduced the number of people in emergency accommodation didn’t fall and continued to rise during the period.

He said the solution was to continue to ramp up investment in social housing and cost rental which was what the Government was doing.

The Taoiseach also said it was important to have evidence based debates and that what may be the lived experiences for some people wasn’t necessarily the lived experience for most or the majority of people.

He said the RTB survey also showed that 80 per of tenants were positive or very positive about renting their current property.

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Sarah Burns

Sarah Burns

Sarah Burns is a reporter for The Irish Times