Opposition vows to fight any Government plan to remove rent caps
The parties called for 'emergency action' to be taken to tackle the housing crisis, and criticised the Government's approach.
The protest will come as TDs will bring forward a private member's motion on tackling the housing crisis in the coming weeks.
Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said the Government is missing 'all of their targets'.
'We want to make a very, very strong call to say that this Government, this do-nothing Government, is letting people down, and the only way we're going to tackle this crisis is with emergency action,' Mr Ó Broin said.
Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne described the housing issue in Ireland as a 'social catastrophe' and added that the Government action has not been much of the same, but worse.
'They have completely failed to treat this crisis like an emergency,' Mr Hearne said.
Mr Hearne said it appeared the Government wanted to remove protections from renters in the middle of a housing emergency and said it was 'completely taking us off a cliff in terms of commencements, in terms of planning permissions'.
In recent weeks, the Housing Agency delivered its report on rent pressure zones (RPZs) to housing minister James Browne, in which it recommended changes to the rent cap system.
'I think we need, in the opposition, to actively within the institutions, within the Dáil, within the committees, absolutely oppose any attempt to remove those rent caps, because it is just unthinkable that this Government would remove that protection that renters have in the middle of an emergency,' Mr Hearne said.
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Mr Ó Broin said Sinn Féin would fight changes to rent caps and put pressure on the Government both inside and outside the Oireachtas to force the it to 'stand by renters'.
'Any move by Government to allow landlords to increase the rent burden on tenants, a rent burden that is already far too high, will be strongly resisted, not just by our political parties here and the Raise the Roof movement, but I think by thousands and thousands of people,' Mr Ó Broin said.
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said a housing emergency needed to be declared.
'We need to act as if there's a housing emergency and that means pivoting away from reliance on the private sector, reliance on the market to deliver housing and instead for a much, much greater role of the state,' Mr Murphy said.
'So that's why we want people to come out at 6pm on Tuesday the June 17, outside the Dáil, and to send a very, very clear message to this government,' he added.
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Sunday World
16 hours ago
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Ex-Provo says he's proud IRA chiefs asked him to tell world their war was over
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Not everyone believed them but 20 years on only the most diehard unionist would argue that the IRA still exists as a violent force. Seanna Walsh, announces that IRA leadership has formally ordered an end to its armed campaign in 2005. Séanna (68) reveals this week why he thinks he was chosen to deliver that message, how he had check it was okay with his family first and how he feels about it 20 years later. While a number of ceasefires had been announced and collapsed since 1994, the 2005 statement saw the start of the decommissioning of weapons. The IRA statement delivered by Séanna said that members had been instructed to use exclusively peaceful means and not to engage in any other activities whatsoever. 'I had to be unmasked,' says Séanna – now a Sinn Féin Belfast city councillor – told the Sunday World. 'It had to be that way because we were doing something different. 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Irish Independent
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