Alan O’Reilly is a political activist based in London.
In October 2022, the Irish Government announced that it would introduce a ban on evictions for those in rental properties.
The ban, announced as a temporary measure, to ease the burden on those most affected by the cost-of-living crisis as they made it through the winter. It meant that if you were living in private rental accommodation, owned by a landlord, the landlord could not evict you during this period, even for what many might consider a valid termination notice.
The ban was due to expire at the end of March, as it was only supposed to last six months. However, a coalition of campaigners, activists and others called on the government to extend it; official figures have suggested that some 2,200 evictions were avoided due to the ban in place.
Nonetheless, earlier this month the Government announced its intention to end the ban on time.
There are myriad reasons for this, not least a belief that the ban did little to ease pressure on the least well-off.
But there has also been concern that an extension will drive smaller renters out of the market, and anecdotal evidence suggests where returning emigrants have been unable to use their home, or parents have been unable to house their college-going children.
Fundamentally, the Government also believes that an extension will drive more and more landlords out of the market, further reducing the already depleted rental stock.
Never one to miss a political opportunity, on Tuesday night Sinn Féin tabled a motion in the Dáil calling for an extension of the ban to the end of 2024, citing cost of living and the lack of housing availability.
Even if successful the motion is a non-binding one, but to lose it would be embarrassing and heap further political pressure on the Government.
This is clearly an incredibly challenging issue for most government TDs; members of the smallest of the three governing parties, the Green Party, have suggested that they will vote with the Sinn Féin motion.
Ministers have responded with a counter-motion containing a package of measures aimed to mitigate the worst of the impact of the ending of the ban.
Whether this is enough to get them over the line is anyone’s guess, although expectations in Dublin are that the Government will secure enough votes within the coalition, and amongst independent TDs, to prevail when the vote takes place on Wednesday evening.
The entire debate takes place against the escalating housing crisis in Ireland. Statistics suggest that rents have increased by an average of 63 per cent since 2015. Demand for housing outstrips supply, and house prices continue to rise year on year.
Homelessness also remains a huge issue: 11,754 people – nearly a third of whom are children – needed emergency shelter at the end of January according to the Government’s own figures.
So whatever the outcome in the vote today, housing will continue to be one of the defining domestic issues for Irish political life over the coming years – and fertile territory for Sinn Féin.