Why I’m voting against my own party on the eviction ban: Coalitions need compromise, but not when people are facing life on the street

This week I intend to uphold the spirit of that motion, and vote to retain the eviction ban.

The row over the ban in the last few weeks can be traced back to many issues — but ideology is not one of them. In truth, there is very little difference between the policy positions of the parties in Dáil Éireann — and when we come to vote on the Sinn Féin motion to extend the ban this Wednesday, it is not ideology that will be the dealbreaker.

Every political party in the State recognises the dire housing crisis in Ireland. Every party, whether cheerleading or reluctantly conceding the point, has identified that the State must take a more robust and central role in the provision of residential housing stock.

Ireland has not been unique over the last three decades in placing its need for housing largely in the hands of the private sector and an unfettered market — only to be disappointed with output when financial conditions became less favourable.

We, like many nations in Europe, have learned the hard way that only the State is likely to provide the kind of counter-cyclical investment and building required to deliver a steady stream of homes.

This vote is not about policy. It is about process, about mindset. It’s about a sense of urgency, and about what this housing crisis looks like on the ground. It’s about priorities.

There are hundreds of children in my constituency who are homeless, or facing homelessness through eviction next month. There are no more hotel rooms in which to place them.

Even before the ban is lifted, many families are already living in hotels — with small babies, teenagers and adults all in the same room; single men and women with disabilities in unsafe homes, too scared to complain.

The eviction ban has been criticised for storing up further difficulties for a later date, for discouraging landlords from the market, and for not reducing homelessness in any meaningful way.

​In reality, the eviction ban was never there to deal with any of those issues. Its purpose was to provide a breathing space for policy-makers to enact changes that would benefit both tenants and landlords alike.

It was there to delay the contraction of a private rental sector, whose existence itself allows the Government time to reach its social housing targets, thereby relieving pressure on the entire sector.

Expecting the eviction ban to reduce homelessness when no other policy levers are in place is like putting a plaster on a gaping wound.

The decision to let the ban expire was entirely unexpected.

Backbenchers, immersed in the debate since the beginning of the Covid crisis, were well aware that while a permanent ban would be unconstitutional, there was no impediment to an extension — and we believed that many in our constituencies were actively protected from homelessness by the measure.

The decision, made by the three party leaders following a briefing by the Housing Minister, had not been flagged as an inevitability.

There is still no transparency around how the decision was made — or what, if any, measures to mitigate the terrible impacts of the decision were discussed. The proposals, hastily announced, were not detailed.

If anything, the window between lifting the ban on March 31 and delivering detailed proposals to alleviate the consequences of that decision in June (a full three months later) is likely to create a 90-day free for all.

Private landlords are not at fault in this. They are chastised as the evictors — but really, they are the fall guys, providing a service that the State has failed to adequately provide for decades.

No landlord who may have been idly contemplating selling will now delay. Why wait until June and an as-yet-unknown scheme that may constrain your right to sell, when you’ve a three-month window to act?

To achieve stable government all coalitions require compromise. As someone who has had to vote in ways I have often thought were not sensible, or not in the best interests of my constituents, I’m more aware of this than most.

But coalition niceties don’t count for much on the ground in Dublin Central, when all around you families are facing a life on the street.

​Neasa Hourigan is a Green Party TD representing Dublin Central