Calls made to restore eviction ban
The organiser of the Raise the Roof rally taking place this weekend has called on the Government to reinstate the eviction ban.
Barry Murphy, the coordinator of the event, said the protest is planned because of the “Government’s failure to deal with the housing catastrophe.”
“They lifted the eviction ban, and now where are the people who have been handed evictions supposed to go? There’s nowhere. The eviction ban needs to stay in place,” he told the newspaper.
“When you make a basic human right like housing about profit and shareholders, rather than the common good, then we are all going to suffer.
“There’s 12,259 people in emergency accommodation in the country, we need to admit that what the Government have been doing is wrong. In 1975 the State had 8,794 houses that were built by local authorities. At that time we had a population of 3.2 million people. But in 2022 we only built 6,500, and that’s with a population of 5.1 million. We have to get back to what we know will work.”
Speaking about the success of state-led bodies building housing in the past, he said: “Local authorities built fabulous places like Ballyphehane, Farranree and Gurrannabraher.”
Barry Murphy continued: “These are all vibrant communities.”
Echoing his sentiments was Cork City Cllr Lorna Bogue, who went door to door raising awareness of the event.
“We as a council need to be building ourselves, but we are not getting the support from central government to do that. And at the end of the day our executive follows the policy that was set by central Government. We are hitting a brick wall where we are not being listened to. People need to get out on the streets because they aren’t listening to anyone on this.”
When it comes to housing Barry said he believes there are 3 main issues to consider: “It’s about availability, affordability and security of tenure, and there is no availability there. According to a Daft report released last week, the demand for new houses is up 114% compared to last year.”
He said affordability is also a problem: “People who before would never have had an issue when it came to accommodation, like young teachers, nurses, guards, now can’t afford the rent.”
He said the scarcity of housing may also prompt companies to rethink their decision about having a base in Ireland.
“Foreign companies are going to look at us and say ‘Why would we go to Cork and set up?’ Our staff won’t be able to afford to buy or rent.’ So, it’s going to have an impact on the wider community.”
Speaking about the Raise the Roof rally, Barry said: “I would encourage everyone to come out, because if it doesn’t affect you it’s going to affect your kids and grandkids. We need to get the message out to politicians that you’ve failed us and you are continuing to fail us and we won’t put up with it anymore.”
The march will assemble at Connolly Hall at 12.30pm on Saturday 10 June and proceed to the Grand Parade.
Catriona Twomey of Penny Dinners and Lorcan Sirr housing policy analyst will be speakers at the event.