Homelessness campaigner apologises to Taoiseach over evictions comment

Homelessness campaigner Fr Peter McVerry has apologised to Leo Varadkar after claiming the Taoiseach had overruled Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien on extending the temporary moratorium on no-fault evictions.

Mr Varadkar had denied the allegation.

Speaking to RedFM’s Neil Prendeville Show, Fr McVerry accepted the Taoiseach’s denial as “true”.

“The phrase I was given was that the Taoiseach had overridden the minister. In light of the Taoiseach’s denial, which I accept as true, I believe that that phrase was unfortunate and inaccurate – suggesting as it does a conflict or dispute between the Taoiseach and the minister.

“So whatever the circumstances leading up to the decision to end the ban, which are now irrelevant as the decision has been made, I accept that the minister along with the rest of the Cabinet and the Taoiseach made the decision together to end the ban.”

Fr McVerry said this was both a clarification and an apology to the Taoiseach.

He said he wanted to put an end to the dispute as it is a “distraction from the real issue of where do people go when they are evicted”.

Earlier this week, Fr McVerry said the ending of the temporary moratorium on no-fault evictions is the “worst decision” the Government had made.

More than 4,300 notices to quit were recorded in the final three months of 2022, latest figures from the Residential Tenancies Board show.

This compares with 4,741 issued between July and September while the data for the first three months of 2023 has yet to be released.

“We have a tsunami of misery coming down the road,” he said.

Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik has renewed a call to Government to reintroduce the temporary moratorium on no-fault evictions.

Ms Bacik said she was calling on Mr O’Brien to clarify whether a request had been made to the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) to delay publication of Q4 notice-to-quit figures until after the Dail had risen.

“That’s evidence that we should have had going into those Dail debates and it’s evidence the Government should have had in making a decision whether or not to lift the ban,” she said.

The Department of Housing said it is not uncommon for the RTB to share preliminary data at official level which is then subject to further analysis and verification.

“This data would not have been shared with the minister,” a spokeswoman said. “The publication and timing of publication of RTB data is a matter for the RTB.”

Ms Bacik also called for the publication of the Attorney General’s advice on the eviction ban.

“It’s very unlikely that the Attorney General would have said categorically that they couldn’t extend the ban for a short term,” she said.

“Was there any legal basis for the lifting of the ban decision, or was it in fact made purely politically?”

Labour TD Aodhan O Riordain said the announcement of a child poverty initiative from the Department of the Taoiseach “rings incredibly hollow” in the context of the ending of the eviction ban.

“They do feel strangely timed and they do ring incredibly hollow when you realise just the statistics and the misery and the uncertainty and the insecurity that’s now being heaped on so many vulnerable families,” he said.