Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that he cannot say how many people may face eviction in the coming weeks.
He made the comments ahead of a crunch motion of no confidence in the Government next week following their decision to lift the winter eviction ban from the end of March.
The motion was tabled by the Labour Party, but has now been replaced with a Government motion of confidence in itself that will be discussed just after 9am on Wednesday morning.
READ MORE: Father facing eviction slates Tánaiste's St Patrick's Day €500,000 GAA 'photo op'.
Speaking in Brussels on Friday morning, the Taoiseach dismissed the idea that a lot of people would be “evicted” when the ban lifts, saying that there is a difference between an eviction and a notice to quit.
He said: “I don't think it's possible to have a clear or accurate number for a lot of reasons. “First of all, evictions in Ireland can only be ordered by the courts.
"I think people often mix up notices of termination with evictions. I would expect those numbers to continue to be very small and I can guarantee you that judges are very reluctant to evict people into homelessness.
“We do need to start I think using words a bit more accurately.
“When it comes, for example, to the number of homeless people in emergency accommodation there's sadly nearly 12,000 people in emergency accommodation.
“The reasons for that are manifold and it's not simply people who've had notices to quit served on them. If you look at the last couple of months, when the number of people in emergency accommodation has increased every month, there was an eviction ban in place.”
Mr Varadkar said that the number of people in emergency accommodation has increased for a number of reasons, including family breakdowns and an increase in the number of people arriving in Ireland from overseas.
He also accused the opposition of painting some cases where people are losing their homes as more straightforward than they actually are.
The Taoiseach continued: “I hear cases all the time being brought up by opposition members and the Dáil that on the face of a town like really hard cases.
“When you actually dig into the details, it can be a lot more complicated. Sometimes the person facing the notice termination has a share in the property.
“Often cases that are put across that are genuine hardship cases on the face of it may still be hardship cases, but actually can be very complicated.
“Another one brought up in the Dáil recently, when I looked into it turned out that the landlord who was being demonised for evicting this person was actually dead.”
Justice Minister Simon Harris, meanwhile, told RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne that the opposition was “wasting Dáil time” by holding a motion of no confidence.
“There's a tussle on the left and for relevance,” he said.
The Labour Party, Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, Aontú and People Before Profit will also vote no confidence in the Government.
Attention will now turn to the Independents and Neasa Hourigan, who was expelled from the Green Party for 15 months, to see which way they will vote.
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