Evictions will be at ‘Famine level’ after ban lifted, Fingal council hears

The Government decision to lift the ban on no-fault evictions will result in “Famine level evictions” a meeting of Fingal County Councillor has heard.

Councillors voted by 18 votes to 14 on Tuesday to support a Sinn Féin motion calling on the Government to extend the ban until the end of the year. The ban, on evicting tenants who are meeting their obligations, came into force on October 31st and was lifted on March 31st.

Last week Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin posted an image on social media of a mocked-up picture depicting gardaí overseeing an eviction taking place during the Famine.

‘Political controversy’

Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors general secretary Antoinette Cunningham described Mr Ó Broin’s tweet as “deeply offensive and wholly inappropriate”. Mr Ó Broin subsequently said it was not his intention “to offend, criticise or drag An Garda Síochána into a political controversy”.

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Proposing the motion at a special council meeting on Tuesday, Sinn Fein Cllr Ann Graves noted there had been “a bit of a problem about a reference to the Famine years” but she said, “it is worth noting the average number of evictions during the Famine was 8,123 per year. Now we are looking at nearly 12,000 eviction notices in one year … so we’ve really moved on”.

Solidarity Cllr John Burtchaell said the number of evictions notices, which were matched by the numbers of people who were already homeless, represented a “social and economic catastrophe” with tenants “ejected at the whim of the landlords”, he said. “So we swap the British landlord class for an Irish one, backed by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens, it’s an absolute disgrace.” Removing the eviction ban was “rubbing salt into wounds that they have inflicted on society” and would result in “Famine-level evictions”, he said.

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Fianna Fáil Cllr Darragh Butler said he believed the special meeting had been called “more for social media and show than it is for the delivery of housing. The Government is delivering and Fingal is delivering, this is in spite of the best efforts of those who always find a reason in their areas to object.”

His colleague Eoghan O’Brien said the “extension of the ban on notices of termination would do nothing to improve supply” and Sinn Féin had voted against large housing schemes such as 1,200 homes in Ballymastone “on ideological grounds”.

‘Work together’

Independent Cllr Jimmy Guerin said the issues of security of tenure may end up having a bigger impact on people’s lives than Covid-19. “So we all have to stop b*tching with each other and work together because this is such a national crisis,” he said. “Let’s stop making it a political issue and let us as representatives show the courage when it comes to planning permissions, when it comes to objections, to do the right thing because we know we need homes.”

He asked that people “don’t make landlords become a dirty word the way we did to developers. That serves none of us well.”

The council’s head of housing, Robert Burns, said there were more than 30 council-owned sites with in excess of 3,000 homes at different stages of development.

“Fingal does deliver on our own lands and has been doing that significantly, particularly last year,” he said. “We have met our targets on social housing every year since 2016 so Fingal has been performing in terms of housing delivery.”