Data relating to the number of tenancies terminated in the second half of 2022 was sent to the Department of Housing months ago, in advance of the contentious lifting of the eviction ban which came into effect after the 31st of March.
The Dublin Inquirer has reported on emails between the department and the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) which show figures on the number of notices to quit had been shared by the RTB with the department in January and again in February.
This is despite the fact that the minister, Fianna Fáil’s Darragh O’Brien stated on the 7th of March that he didn’t know how many people faced eviction after the forthcoming lifting of the eviction ban.
The statement from the minister came around the time the government chose not to extend the ban on ‘no fault’ evictions which had been in place since the 30th of October. Since that decision, the government has faced a huge amount of criticism from opposition parties and housing charities for lifting the ban with already high levels of homelessness - with 11,754 people living in emergency accommodation in January alone.
Around 9,000 notices to quit were served to tenants in the second half of 2022 in Ireland. While this was known by government officials in the department, on the 7th of March, Darragh O’Brien was questioned as to whether he knew how many notices were served.
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In response, the minister told reporters, “No well, the RTB assess that data. Because they receive, they receive copies of the notice to quit and they’re the ones who publish that data. And we’ll have that very shortly.”
Responding to the report by the Dublin Inquirer, a spokesperson for the department said: “The Residential Tenancies Board is a key stakeholder for the department, and we engage with them on an ongoing basis.”
“It is not uncommon for the RTB to share preliminary data at official level which is then subject to further analysis and verification. This data would not have been shared with the Minister,”
No answer was given to enquiries as to whether the minister knew the figures when asked back in March or, if not, why such figures were not shared with him.
The opposition TD and Sinn Féin housing spokesperson, Eoin Ó Broin, has called for clarity from Darragh O’Brien. In a statement, the Dublin Mid-West TD said “Minister O’Brien must clarify whether he and his cabinet colleagues had this information when making a decision on the ending of the ban.
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“It is hard to imagine any set of circumstances where Department of Housing Officials would not have shared this information with the Minister in advance of such a significant decision.”
Conor Paterson