Update – August 5th 2020

Update – August 5th 2020

Despite the pandemic and the gloomy weather, this summer has turned out to be a busy one for CATU Ireland.
Our four local committees/groups in Dublin: Mountjoy-Dorset, Phibsboro-Glasnevin, Crumlin-Drimnagh & Inchicore-Kilmainham, have been joined by a 5th committee in the Liberties-Rialto and new groups are set to launch in Cork, Galway and Maynooth soon.

CATU Liberties-Rialto

The main focus of the local committees so far has been to highlight their common campaign of an extension of the ban on evictions/no rent arrears or increases, to get out door knocking and to hold stalls to talk to more members of their local communities. While public pressure, including from CATU Ireland local groups, forced the Government to extend their ban on evictions and freeze rent increases, this legislation expired on August 1st and the eviction ban was not extended for the majority of tenants.

The eviction ban aka Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020 ended on August 1st and the Residential Tenancies and Valuation Act 2020 was enacted on August 2nd.

In the words of our CATU Inchicore-Kilmainham local committee.

🚩 New legislation only aims to protect those who are receiving temporary wage supplement or unemployment allowance, or who have fallen ill to the virus. It also only refers to evictions for rent arrears.

😡 As a union we know that this ignores a large number of tenants who either cannot prove they have caught the virus, or those who have lost income indirectly and have not been eligible for government subsidies.

🏚️ This bill re-opens the potential for evictions via other loopholes (such as bogus claims regarding either renovation or the need to move relatives into the property) for all renters. These reasons have been major causes of evictions and homelessness before the pandemic.

🦠 Covid-19 has not gone away, and secure accommodation is an essential public health requirement in the midst of a pandemic that requires us to remain home and maintain distance from other people.

✊ If the government won’t protect us, then we need to get organised as tenants, and as communities, to protect ourselves.

💪 Join CATU today to defend each other from the threat of eviction, slashing of our public services, and build a better world: https://catuireland.org/?page_id=132

Our strength is in our numbers, and now with more than 300 members, we as a Union will be here to defend our members against eviction, to fight for secure homes and communities that we all want to live in.