Extending eviction ban was the easy option – but Government chose to take a risk

The Government’s decision not to extend the moratorium on evictions took most people around Government by surprise. The expectation general around Government in recent days and weeks had been that a limited extension of the moratorium, with perhaps some exemptions for landlords who needed the property themselves, was in prospect. This was not because anyone especially thought it was a good idea, but because they didn’t want to take the political heat for shutting it down.

But that changed late on Monday night when word emerged from a lengthy meeting of the three party leaders and the Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien that the ban would not be renewed.

It is a move that is not without political risk. There was an immediate backlash from the opposition and from groups advocating on the housing issue. Many of the latter acknowledged that this was a difficult decision, with no easy answers either way, though most said that on balance, keeping the ban intact would be the best thing for people who are struggling in a dysfunctional market.

There was less nuance from the opposition: “heartless, cruel and shameful”, said Eoin Ó Broin of Sinn Féin; Holly Cairns of the Social Democrats said the move would “open the floodgates to a tsunami of homelessness”; while Richard Boyd-Barrett called it a “brutal and heartless decision”. Amid a welter of opposition demands on the Dáil Order of Business, the Taoiseach conceded a Dáil debate on the issue later this week.

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There were more than a few eyebrows raised visibly on the Government benches when the Taoiseach offered a less than enthusiastic justification for the move: “This might not be correct and it might not even be the right decision,” he told the Dáil, “but it is one we believe is correct based on all the factors in front of us. It is the decision we believe is in the public interest.”

Nor were nerves around Government much eased by the promises of new tenant protections that accompanied the ending of the moratorium, which sounded a lot more like a bunch of ideas rather than a worked out plan.

The Green Party leadership attempted to quell the unease in their ranks caused by Green TD Neasa Hourigan’s strong criticism over the ending of the ban on RTÉ Radio‘s Today with Claire Byrne Show on Tuesday morning, by insisting in a letter to members they had negotiated a suite of new protections for renters as part of the Government decision. But as Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan had already pointed out in the Dáil, the centrepiece of this plan – a commitment to buy 1,500 homes being sold by landlords to enable the tenants to stay in situ – had already been announced by the Minister for Housing. It all looked like the whole thing had been cobbled together at the last minute. And when that happens, it’s usually because it has been cobbled together at the last minute.

Nevertheless, the decision may mark an important moment for the Coalition. Yes, it leaves the Coalition open to charges of cruelty and indifference to those struggling in the housing crisis – a perception especially strong among younger voters, who have another suitor in the new Social Democrats leader. But it’s not like those accusations were not being made on a regular basis anyway.

The move to end the moratorium suggests that Ministers are starting to think that the path of least resistance is not necessarily the wise one, either in politics or policy terms. It would have been easier to extend the eviction ban; the Government chose not to. That is a development worth noticing.