Rose Conway-Walsh: Where Should Evicted Pensioners Go?
Rose Conway-Walsh confronts the Minister over the escalating housing crisis in Mayo and across the state, pressing for an immediate answer on where evicted tenants are expected to go. She cites local waiting lists, rising evictions and a specific case of a vulnerable RAS tenant facing eviction after 21 years.
Crisis in Mayo
Rose Conway-Walsh lays out the scale of the problem in Mayo: 2,664 on the council waiting list, 924 on the HAP waiting list and 744 on the RAS list, while recent RTB figures show a 51% increase in evictions. She argues that working people, pensioners and vulnerable tenants are being pushed into homelessness or forced to leave the country.
Human cost and case study
Using the example of a man in his 70s, on 22 daily medications and a RAS tenant of 21 years, she highlights the personal consequences of current policy failures. After 30 years on the council waiting list he has effectively been told to fend for himself in a rental market that is out of reach.
Direct challenge to the Minister
Conway-Walsh directly asks the Minister for a single, immediate answer: where should this man, and the thousands like him, be expected to go? She stresses the lack of emergency accommodation outside limited local provision and the urgent need for a response.
Policy demands and solutions
She lists concrete policy options already proposed: cutting rents, banning no-fault evictions, accelerating delivery of social and genuinely affordable homes, and expanding tenant in situ protections to handle emergencies. The address closes with a demand that the Government act now to prevent further evictions and homelessness.
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Minister, the prolonged government-sponsored housing crisis is affecting every community in this state, and more so than in Mayo, where there are 2,664 on the Council waiting list, 924 on the HAP waiting list, and 744 on the Ross list. Now, as a result of fewer housing policies, working people, pensioners and vulnerable tenants are being forced out of their homes with nowhere for them to go, while private rents continue to spire out of control. Recent RTB figures reveal that a 51% increase in evictions, the highest level since the famine. Thousands of people are now desperately searching for a place to live. If they find one, they will be paying thousands more on rent each year. If they don't, they face moving back in with family. If they can do that, immigrating or homelessness. Michael Davitt was one of Mayo's greatest. He fought for land, for dignity, for justice, for ordinary people. He believed that no person should live at the mercy of insecurity and exploitation, exactly what's happening right now. Yet today, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael ensured that ordinary families have literally been left out in the cold. I'm dealing with one case, just one case in Mayo of a man in his 70s and a Ross tenant who is facing eviction after 21 years in his home. He lives with serious health conditions, using a walker and is on 22 different daily medications. After 30 years on the council waiting list, he has effectively been told to fend for himself in a rental market that is completely out of reach. Now, Minister, what do I tell this man? I only want one answer from you today. Where should he go and where should the thousands more go like him? Minister, I'm asking you to look at me. Where do they go? Please, I'm asking you, where can I tell them to go? Because the council staff cannot tell them where to go except for emergency up in Charlestown and there's a limited space there. There is no place for people to go and people are being made homeless in Mayo and across other counties right now. Please, can you give us a solution right here, right now. We have given you solutions in terms of cutting rent, in terms of banning no-fault evictions, accelerating delivery of social and genuinely affordable homes, of expanding the tenant in situ. Would you even just expand the tenant in situ so we can deal with emergency situations like that?
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