WATCH: Raise the Roof rally in Limerick urges reforms to tackle housing crisis
CAMPAIGNERS have called for major changes in the way housing is managed in Ireland in order to tackle the homelessness crisis.
A protest rally took place at Bedford Row in the city centre today urging swift action to tackle the shortage of housing in this country.
Organised by Raise the Roof, it was attended by representatives of Sinn Fein, Labour, People Before Profit and the Social Democrats.
Raise the Roof is a coalition of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, student unions as well as housing charities and political parties.
The main thing the group is looking for is the building of social housing, a rent freeze and a ban on evictions to keep people in their homes, as well as calling on the State to step in and tax speculators who hold onto land without using it.
Co-chair of the Limerick branch of the Community Action Tenants Union (Catu) Ruairi Fahy said since the ban, introduced during Covid-19, has been overturned, many landlords are kicking their tenants out on flimsy grounds.
"It was keeping people in their homes. We are seeing with it gone, landlords are using multiple different reasons to kick people out, a lot of them wouldn’t hold up to scrutiny, and unfortunately, a lot of tenants just wouldn’t know their rights,” he said.
Senator Paul Gavan, of Sinn Fein said: “This government has failed consistently on housing. Perhaps the starkest statistic is the two years they’ve been in power, homelessness has increased by 19%. Tonight, there will be 3,000 children without a home. Seven thousand adults without a home. These figures are only going to get worse.”
Mr Gavan says he’s fearful of another generation of Ireland lost to emigration.
Laura Fahy of the Catu union said this is not what she wants to see.
"I want to see people emigrate because they want to live in a new country with a different culture for a while and not because the alternative is living in their childhood bedroom back with their parents,” she said.