Council’s emergency accommodation ‘very limited’

KEEPING THE SITUATION UNDER REVIEW Tom Gilligan, Mayo County Council.


Oisín McGovern

MAYO County Council’s capacity to provide emergency accommodation is ‘very limited’ as the ban on no-fault evictions is due to be lifted.
This comes as Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh has demanded an extension of the Government’s ban on evictions, which is due to expire on March 31.
Deputy Conway-Walsh had claimed that Mayo County Council had no emergency accommodation as 74 evictions are due to occur next month.
There are currently 162 people currently accessing emergency accommodation in Mayo, including 76 children.
Tom Gilligan, Mayo County Council’s Director of Services for Housing, told The Mayo News yesterday that the local authority has ‘very limited capacity at the moment and are reliant on external accommodation providers’.
“We are keeping the situation under constant review,” Mr Gilligan said.
Deputy Conway-Walsh, who has described the decision to lift the eviction ban as ‘shameful’ has called on TDs to back a Sinn Féin motion calling for the decision to be reversed.
The motion will be debated in the DΡil this evening (Tuesday) and voted on the following evening.
As it stands, evictions can only occur in limited circumstances including non-payment of rent, anti-social behaviour and property damage.
“Next month 74 eviction notices will fall due in County Mayo. These individuals and working families now face being made homeless in April, as a direct result of the Government’s decision to end the eviction ban,” Deputy Conway Walsh stated yesterday (Monday).
“I have had a flood of people contact me looking for help since last Monday. Most of these have children going to local schools. One such couple with four kids are being evicted next month and have nowhere to go. There are no rental properties in the area. Another mother-of-two has an eviction date for the beginning of May and doesn’t know where they are going to live. There is real fear and anxiety as people struggle to find somewhere to live.”

‘Unacceptable’
Deputy Conway-Walsh said that the ban on evictions should be extended until those being served notices to quit have secured alternative accommodation. Yesterday (Monday), there were 32 Mayo properties listed for rent on Daft.ie.
“It is unacceptable that we have heard nothing from the Taoiseach, TΡnaiste or Minister for Housing about what support those people will receive in the coming months,” Deputy Conway-Walsh said, referring to the 74 evictions of Mayo tenants which are due to fall next month.
“It is even worse if government TDs in Mayo are willing to stand over that,” she continued.
“That is why they must support our motion to extend the ban on evictions. I am also pleading with Fianna FΡil and Fine Gael councillors in the county to contact the Taoiseach and Minister Darragh O’Brien to ask that the ban be extended until such time as those being served notices to quit have alternative accommodation.”
Fintan Maher from Galway Simon Community, who supported 810 households across Mayo, Galway and Roscommon last year, told The Mayo News yesterday (Monday) that homelessness services would be unable to cope with demand if the eviction ban was lifted.
“The volume of people who’d be looking to Galway Simon and to other organisations for help, I just can’t see how the system will hope with it,” he said.