Focus Ireland has welcomed the Government’s reintroduction of the moratorium on evictions in light of new COVID-19 controls moving the country to Level 5.

Focus Ireland CEO Pat Dennigan said: “Since the lapse on the eviction freeze at the end of August Focus Ireland has called for this temporary measure to be put back in place as we warned of the occurrence of disruptive evictions at a time of nationwide uncertainty during the pandemic. It is a very positive move by Minister O’Brien to ensure the inclusion of the eviction moratorium in primary legislation as this will mean there will be very swift protections for tenants in the case of further Covid19 restrictions in the coming months.”

He added: “The moratorium significantly reduced the number of children and adults who were becoming homeless during the 5-month period since the measure began in March and this really helped services to be able to protect people who were already homeless during Covid19 and to help a record number to secure a home. The eviction ban will help to prevent homeless services from becoming stretched to breaking point during the Winter which we were very fearful of happening. It will allow us to continue to focus resources on keeping people who are homeless safe and housing more families and individuals.”

Mr Dennigan concluded: “We have kept people safe during Covid19 and worked with our State partners and supporters to help over 2,000 people in 760 households to secure a place to call home since the start of this terrible pandemic in March. We worked with State partners to help these households move into a mix of Private-Rented, local authority housing, other Approved Housing Body housing and some now live in our Focus Housing accommodation.”

“Focus Ireland will continue this work to keep families and individuals safe and there is no better thing to do then to prevent people from ever becoming homeless in the first place by keeping them in their homes which is exactly what the eviction ban will do.”

Media contact: Roughan Mac Namara 086 85 15 117 or Conor Culkin 086 4680 442