Government lacking compassion on homelessness, says Hearne

Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne has accused the government of “turning a deaf ear” on the homeless crisis.

The Soc Dems housing spokesperson said the homelessness crisis is “undeniable,” and said that since becoming a TD after last November’s general election, his office has received a vast volume of representation requests from people who are in or at immediate risk of homelessness.

“I can only assume that government TDs are receiving the same, yet they still choose not to propose emergency measures, such as an eviction ban, that would make a genuine difference to those in housing insecurity,” the Dublin North-West TD noted.

“Large scale evictions have recently been reported in Cork, Kerry and Stillorgan – this is now the norm without an eviction ban.”

Hearne noted “it’s no surprise that Threshold has been receiving a mammoth increase in calls for help – last week’s figures show there were 16,614 people living in homeless emergency accommodation at the end of September, including 5,238 children.”

“There were almost 10,000 notices to quit issued to private renters in the first 6 months of this year – a tsunami of potential evictions the government is ignoring.”

Hearne said, “there has been a complete and utter failure from government to prioritise those in and facing homelessness, showing an abhorrent lack of compassion – based on any evaluation of government housing policy, preventing homelessness is clearly not a focus for the Minister.”

The Social Democrats TD called for a re-introduction of a ban on evictions.

After the lifting of the no-fault eviction ban in March 2023, homeless figures, which had seen a sharp decline during that temporary measure, started to see a steady rise again and leading to the situation in 2025 where the all-time record high figures have been broken multiple times in 2025.

“We need to see an immediate rent freeze and rent reduction mechanisms put in place, alongside a ramping-up of social and affordable housing delivery, to end the State’s over-reliance on HAP,” Hearne said.