This government is continuing to evict families from their homes.
In the Dáil last Thursday, I appealed to Minister Michael Noonan to order the banks he owns to withdraw repossession proceedings in light of the extreme housing emergency which exists.
The Minister refused. This means that the government has given the green light to the banks they own, to continue to evict families.
Court Orders for repossession of 47 primary residences were granted at Clonmel and Nenagh Circuit Courts in the first 3 quarters of 2015. A further 8 buy-to-lets which also house families were also repossessed. Banks are now seeking a further 97 repossession orders for dwellings in Tipperary, of which 32 are being sought by AIB, EBS and Permanent TSB which are owned by the Government through Michael Noonan (FG) Minister for Finance.
Minister Noonan claimed that the issue was being reasonably handled by the banks. Totally misrepresenting the situation, Mr Noonan quoted the 208 orders for repossessions for the whole country for Quarter 3,2015 as representative of the scale of the problem. COURTS ONLY SIT FOR 1 OF THE 3 MONTHS IN QUARTER 3!! The Court Service Figures for the whole country for Quarters 1 and 2 are 586 and 314 respectively.
The proposed Eviction of 97 Tipperary Families Must Be Stopped Now!
Senior Minister Alan Kelly (Lab) and Minister of State Hayes(FG) must now intervene at Cabinet to have a Housing Emergency Declared and all repossession applications withdrawn.
In particular they must force Minister Noonan to withdraw the repossession applications by the banks he owns.
This can be done by government decision and does not require legislation.
Seamus Healy T.D. 18/01/2016
Tel 087 2802199
Focus Ireland Spokesperson said:This is far from rent certainty.
However, we are highly concerned it will fail to stem the constant rising flow of 70 to 80 families becoming homeless in Dublin alone very month. —–The measures are far from a convincing response to the scale of the problems we are facing.
Kelly sought that rent increases be pegged to the cost of living. But Minister Noonan(FG) backed by 25 FG Landlord TDs, and American developers Kennedy Wilson forced him to bend the knee and retreat.
Landlords can only increase the rent every two years now rather than every year as before. Landlords must get three local examples of rents to justify an increase.!!! This will make almost no difference. In a situation where there is no competition between landlords due to shortage of accomodation, landlords can simply raise the rent by double the yearly increase every two years! OR, WORSE STILL, RAISE THE RENT BY A LARGE AMOUNT BEFORE THE LAW COMES IS PASED. The Dáil sat all night to bail out the Banks. But there is no urgency about protecting tenants!
Seamus Healy TD with the Irish League of Credit Unions President Brian McCrory, at the launch of the Credit Union proposal for the funding of social housing.
The Credit Union proposal for social housing is a win-win situation for all – families waiting for homes, construction workers, the government and the Credit Union movement itself. It would be an extremely effective way of combatting the housing crisis and would make €8.5bn available to the government to build houses. The government should grab this offer with both hands. Well done to the Credit Unions on such a practical proposal.
Workers & Unemployed Action 