‘The level of heartlessness and cruelty is beyond comprehension’, says singing protester

Martin Leahy, a Cork musician, hopes that public pressure may force Government to make a U-turn on the decision which will plunge some people into homelessness

Martin Leahy, a Cork based musician singing his protest song about the housing crisis 'Everyone Should Have A Home outside the Dáil'. Pictures: Moya Nolan

Martin Leahy took his housing crisis protest song ‘Everyone Should Have a Home’ to the Dáil for the 44th time yesterday as heated debates erupted inside over the Government’s decision to lift the eviction ban.

Mr Leahy, a Cork musician, hopes that public pressure may force Government to make a U-turn on the decision which will plunge some people into homelessness.

“It will affect me directly. It’s very disappointing,” Mr Leahy said.

“The level of [Government] heartlessness and cruelty is beyond comprehension for me.

“Nothing has changed since the eviction ban came in, so all the reasons that stood for introducing it still stand and they’re lifting it.

As soon as the ban is lifted I’m expecting to be served a notice.

“It's depressing thinking of all the people around the country who are just terrified of what they’re facing. There are something like 2,500 eviction notices waiting to be served and nowhere for people to go.

“For anyone to get thrown into homelessness is tragic.”

Mr Leahy had previously been served a notice to quit on his Co Cork home but the eviction ban helped give him some respite.

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Although he is a well-known session musician who has worked with some of Ireland’s biggest songwriters, including Christy Moore and John Spillane and whose own songs receive widespread radio play, at the age of 46, he suddenly found himself priced out of the private rental market.

“I hope that they extend the eviction ban. There are talks about protests. I think it was public pressure, those collective voices, that made them look at the ban in the first place so they’re not deaf to that. 

If enough people make enough noise I do believe that they’ll turn.”

Cork Simon Campaigns and Communications Manager, Paul Sheehan, said that when the previous eviction ban was lifted last year it led to a steady increase in people seeking emergency accommodation.

And as homeless shelters and other forms of emergency accommodation are already full, he does not know where people will go. 

Martin Leahy says it is 'depressing thinking of all the people around the country who are just terrified of what they’re facing'.

“We’re seeing record numbers in our place, in emergency shelters in general across Cork and Kerry, and our concern is the same thing will happen this time around.”

He said that he was “disappointed” that more was not done during the eviction ban to boost housing supply. Plans announced recently by the Department of Housing to increase supply and give local authorities targets to acquire more social housing through leasing or buying would take time to “kick in”.

“But even the level of [housing stock] increase they're talking about comes nowhere near to meeting the need,” he said.

“There will be a little bit of breathing space. Anyone served a notice will have at least until the end of May/early June because of the notice period.

“One in three people turning up to our soup run every night is in housing, mostly privately rented. And all their resources are going to keeping the roof over their head, there’s nothing left.

“So it’s inevitable that we’re going to see some of those people in over the summer I think.

And we don’t have more capacity. We’re packed to the rafters.

“We had an average of 78 or 79 people staying per night in January — we’ve never seen figures like that. Back in 2017, the average was 47.

Martin Leahy feels that 'if people make enough noise' about the lifting of the eviction ban that the Government might do a U-turn.

“We’ll do everything we can, but there's not much more we can do with space we have. There’s a shortage of emergency accommodation as it stands.

“There are more people in private emergency accommodation — hotels and B&Bs — than in emergency accommodation like ours and they’ll be under pressure when the tourism season kicks in. 

It's very hard to know what will happen.

“But there is a need for more emergency accommodation in Cork. 

“The Department of Housing's own figures show record numbers in emergency accommodation in Cork. In the last three or four months it’s consistently been above 500, we’ve never seen that before.”