A Donegal TD has described the housing situation in Donegal as ‘beyond desperate’.
Deputy Charles Ward was speaking on a motion regarding evictions and rent hikes and said that the fact that over 7,000 households across the country have been given an eviction notice in the first three months of this year alone is “terrifying”.
“Where will these people go?” he asked.
“Behind every eviction is a person or a family at serious risk of homelessness, because we simply do not have enough houses.”
Deputy Ward raised specific concerns regarding the housing crisis in Donegal, stating: “We are already facing a defective concrete crisis on top of this housing crisis, which is driving demand even higher and pushing prices up even further. We are trying to get tens of thousands of people to rebuild their homes when, speaking today, there’s just 35 rental properties in Donegal for rent.”
“If we get families moving forward in the defective concrete scheme, where are they going to rent? There’s nowhere, so they have to stay in their houses that are crumbling. The scheme comes to a halt. Homelessness becomes normalised. And that’s what’s happened, we’re facing homelessness on an unprecedented scale and it has to be addressed as an emergency,” the 100% Redress party leader said.
Deputy Ward urged the Minister for Housing to introduce emergency legislation.
“You need to put emergency legislation in place, Minister, because if you don’t introduce it now, you’re going to be introducing it within the next year or two anyway. Take control of the situation.”