Lifting of eviction ban will worsen Longford's homeless and housing crisis

Fundraising manager with the Midlands Simon Community Noel Greene lambasted the move which officially came into effect on Saturday following weeks of political upheaval at its long term ramifications.

Mr Greene said the decision to press ahead with lifting the ban in the midst of arguably the worst housing crisis in living memory was potentially devastating.

“I think it is a very bad decision and a very badly thought out decision,” he said.

“I think they (Government) could have put other measures in place first and looked at it again in six or 12 months' time.”

Local auctioneer Padraic Davis said while the lifting of the ban was a “inevitable at some stage” for those now being served with notices, to date there was no evidence of a potential landlord versus tenant battleground taking shape in Longford.

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He told of encountering two such instances whereby tenants had been served notices, stressing however that respective landlords of both properties had entered into talks in order to ensure those affected found alternative accommodation.

Padraic said while he remained confident of resolving both scenarios and pressing ahead with disposing of the two properties in question, there was a danger the serving of other eviction notices would not go as smoothly.

“In both of those cases the landlords have been very fair and though we will get the properties sold for those owners, not every owner will be like that and that is when we will have a problem,” he said.

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The local auctioneer expressed his “empathy” for dissaffected tenants caught up in the crisis and said calls by opposition leaders to defer the evictions ban for a period of time would do little to solve the country's housing emergency.

“100 per cent,” he said, when asked if postponing the ban for six months or longer was simply “kicking the can down the road”.

Instead, the long serving local auctioneer implored government leaders to look at introducing tax breaks in order to prevent a major haemorrhaging of landlords from the property market.

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“It's a very volatile situation and landlords are being taxed to death in this country. In my view, the only way to stop it getting any worse is by giving tax breaks of some form to prevent a mass exodus of landlords from the market,” he said.

Mr Davis said the fallout from the ban's lifting and political storm that has followed would now invariably spark talk as to whether it (eviction ban) should ever have been brought in in the first place”.