PEOPLE Before Profit candidates Ruairí Fahy and Cian Prendiville served an ‘eviction notice’ to Limerick Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael representatives in the run up to the upcoming local and European elections.
“Government housing policy is a disaster”, the mayoral and EU elections candidates said during a recent day of action against the ongoing housing crisis.
People Before Profit carried out events across the country highlighting the levels of dereliction and vacancy while the reported numbers of people in emergency accommodation in Ireland reached nearly 14,000.
The party has called to “bring back the eviction ban”, for vulture funds to be outlawed, to serve compulsory purchase orders on long-term vacant properties, and to “establish a State building company to work with councils to build thousands of social and affordable homes”.
In Limerick, an ‘eviction notice’ was served by Mr Fahy and Mr Prendiville to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, who said its “time to kick them out of power”.
Limerick mayoral candidate Ruairí Fahy called out the government on its housing policies, saying that “this government needs to go”.
“Their obsession with letting the market solve problems and keeping all developments ‘off balance sheet’ has made homes unaffordable for the majority of working families to rent or own while people are waiting over a decade before they finally get offered a home.
“We have hundreds of empty council houses in Limerick needing more and more work the longer they’re left idle. These need to be returned to use and the new mayoral budget needs to get the rusty panels off buildings and move families in.”
Mr Prendiville, People Before Profit candidate for Ireland South in the upcoming European elections, also criticised the rising homelessness numbers, saying that “4,000 children growing up in hotels and family hubs is a disgrace”
“The long term impacts of this on their mental, physical, and emotional development are unquantifiable.
“Nearly 14,000 people are declared homeless by the State but we all know of families living out of a box room and people living in their cars. The government has failed, it’s got to go.”
