Sinn Féin will not stop members from objecting to new housing developments

When asked if he would call on his colleagues to stop objecting to developments, Eoin Ó Broin said he would not.

Eoin Ó Broin’s motion calls for the Government to extend the emergency ban on evictions until the end of January 2024.

Sinn Féin has said everything must be done to tackle the housing crisis, but it will not stop its members from objecting to new developments, the party said.

An extension of the rent evictions ban until January 2024 is needed to avoid thousands of more people becoming homeless, the party’s housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin told reporters on Tuesday.

Publishing its Dáil motion, to be debated next week, the party is seeking a reversal of the Government’s decision to axe the ban on March 31, calling for it to remain for the rest of the year.

Despite it being a non-legally binding motion, Mr Ó Broin said it was designed to “put political pressure” on the Government.

“Whether we have a motion or a bill makes no difference. What matters is pressure on the Government. And it would be wrong of me, as the opposition spokesperson on housing, not to try every possible avenue to put pressure on the Government to reverse this decision,” he said.

When asked if he would call on his colleagues to stop objecting to developments, Mr Ó Broin said he would not.

“People have a right to engage in the planning system. There are over 90,000 units with active planning permission across the state. Planning is not the problem,” he said.

“The lack of affordable homes is the problem and giving planning permissions or giving developers public lands to build homes that are going to cost €420,000 or flats that are going to cost €3,500 a month — that doesn't do anything to tackle this crisis,” he added.

“And there is nobody in my constituency who thinks giving away public lands to sell homes for €400,000 is a good idea. And therefore I'm quite happy with the approach we've taken on this matter,” he said.

Mr Ó Broin’s motion calls for the Government to extend the emergency ban on evictions until the end of January 2024. It also calls for the Government to expand the tenant in situ scheme for both social and affordable cost rental tenants.

Emergency powers

It also calls for the Government to use emergency planning and procurement powers to target vacant and derelict buildings and new building technologies to increase the supply of social and affordable homes above existing targets.

When asked if he would reserve the right to extend the ban again come the end of January next year, he said if the government was able to get those additional units both for tenants in situ and through emergency powers, it wouldn't need to extend it.

Mr Ó Broin said such powers could help deliver between an extra 1,000 to 2,000 homes but conceded such targets “are ambitious” and the housing crisis cannot be fixed in six months.

He said he and his party would be seeking the support of Independent TDs who normally back the Government in the vote next week.

When asked did this include Tipperary TD Michael Lowry, who has consistently backed the government, Mr Ó Broin said he did not care about a TD’s background given the scale of the crisis.

He said stable rental systems across Europe generally don't allow evictions on the grounds of sale.

They generally only have evictions on the basis of breach of contract. 

“So actually what's being proposed here is pretty modest in terms of comparable European systems and 60% of the notice to quit recorded by the Residential Tenancies bought on Friday last are vacant possession sale,” he said.