A father who is facing eviction has criticised the Government’s trips abroad for St Patrick’s Day, arguing that the €500,000 given to a GAA club in New York by Micheál Martin would have bought his home.
Paul, 40, told the Irish Mirror that he and his nine-year-old daughter will be evicted from their home in Churchtown, south Dublin, on May 31 after receiving a notice to quit on October 24 2022. They have been living there for eight years.
The self-employed worker said that while he has been told he can buy the home he is being evicted from, he would not be able to afford it for another two years. He is now hoping that the council will buy it under the tenant in situ scheme.
READ MORE: Independent TDs warn their support is not guaranteed for confidence motion after eviction ban.
However, Paul is worried that the process will be drawn out and will not be completed before he has to move out of the property. He says he will have no other option but to “overhold” and remain in the property after his termination date passes as he cannot find anywhere else to live.
Paul explained: “If I have to enter into the position where I'm over holding purely as a response to government inactivity over the past 20 years, that is it, I am overholding.
“If I can’t work out something whereby [the landlord] is going to investigate the tenant in situ scheme or be lenient and give me another year to get things sorted.
“I'm just going to think back to Micheál Martin in New York on Paddy’s weekend with his arm around some GAA guy and the headline that the Irish Government signed off on €500,000 for the upkeep of a stadium.
“That is the price of my gaff. That is the price they quoted me.
“People like me who’ve been paying rent and paying taxes and continue to do so, we need that money.
“So instead of doing your press calls off abroad and photo ops, just engage with your local community and your people.”
Paul said that the situation he finds himself in is an “absolute nightmare” and that his daughter fully understands the circumstances. He said that there is no way for him to move in with family and he does not know what he can do rather than stay in his current rental property.
The dad said that he watched the vote on the eviction ban on Wednesday and that it felt like the Government was “having a big private joke at the expense of the 'riff raff'”.
He claimed: “That is how they look at the normal working people in this country. There is no respect.”
Paul also said that it “turned his stomach” to see the Government voting against an amendment to the eviction ban to allow people with cancer to be exempt from eviction and then several TDs and Ministers wearing daffodils for Daffodil Day just hours later.
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