Councillor Daithí Doolan, Sinn Féin group leader on Dublin City Council said “the Tenant In Situ scheme has been a successful tool in preventing homelessness in Dublin and beyond. Last year alone, it has ensured that several hundred families in Dublin have avoided slipping into to homelessness. The current homeless crisis would be even worse only for this scheme.”
“It is deeply disappointing that the Minister for Housing James Browne has decided to gut the scheme. He has imposed massive cuts that will put hundreds of tenants at risk of homelessness.”
“We cannot and will not accept these cuts lying down. Sinn Féin has tabled an emergency motion for tonight’s Dublin City Council meeting demanding that the minister immediately reverses his decision and reinstates the scheme in full.”
Doolan said the decision to cut the scheme is “nothing short of mean and heartless.”
He said that if the scheme was cut, it would cause huge stress and anxiety to some of the most at risk families in this city.”
“We must fight back and we must win,” he said.
“I would urge all councillors, regardless of party, support this motion. This will send out a very clear and loud message to Minister Browne. Reverse your decision and reinstate the Tenant In Situ scheme in full.”
In March, a special meeting of Dublin City Council, all council members agreed to write to Minsiter Browne calling on him to keep the scheme.
This month’s meeting of Dublin City Council will aim to keep the pressure on the Minister.
Doolan’s party colleague Micheál Mac Donncha said, “what we’re witnessing with the proposed scrapping of the Tenant in Situ scheme is yet again a retreat from public housing.”
The Donaghmede councillor said, “it is quite obvious that key top civil servants and key ministers never wanted this scheme in the first place. It was pioneered here in Dublin, and it was a great success and hundreds of families from homelessness.”
Mac Donncha noted that Fine Gael’s former Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy shut down the scheme for new applicants in early 2020, only to be reinstated once Fianna Fáil’s Darragh O’Brien took office and reinstated the scheme.
With a new Minister for Housing in place, Mac Donncha said that there is a desire within the Department of Housing and the Department of Public Expenditure to sunset the scheme for good.
“There is a lack of certainty and a lack of clarity; councillors don’t know where we stand, and now they (government departments) want to choke it to death with needless restrictions.”