Tánaiste responds after Taoiseach comments on housing

By Cillian Sherlock, Press Association

Simon Harris has defended Fine Gael’s record on housing policy, after the Taoiseach said Fianna Fáil had “made a difference” when it took over the portfolio.

Micheaál Martin said there was an attitude in his party to “get things done” in Government.

He had been responding to a question on the differences between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

He told Virgin Media’s Monday with Gavan Reilly: “I think if you look at over the last number of years, for example, in terms of budgetary approaches, if you take housing, for example, I actually think we’ve made a difference on housing since we came back in.”

He added: “I think we did make a difference as a party, and I think historically, we’ve had very significant achievements.

“There is an attitude within Fianna Fáil that when you get into government, you get things done.”

Asked about the comments on Thursday, Harris referenced Fianna Fáil’s time in government in the mid 2000s and said: “I mean we had to come in after a financial crash and try and rebuild the entire housing and banking sector, I think that matter is well known and nobody needs a history lesson.”

The coalition came under criticism for its housing policies in the Dáil on Thursday.

Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman said new figures showing a 50 per cent increase in eviction notices was a “devastating indictment” on the Government’s housing policy.

That figure is a comparison of the first three months of 2026 compared to the same period last year.

Commenting on figures published by the Residential Tenancies Board, Pearse Doherty told the Dáil: “We have more than 7,000 eviction notice issued to renters, the highest number ever recorded.”

Doherty said he had been told of a couple in Galway, aged in their 60s, who had been served with an eviction notice.

“The man told us that he has a pain in the pit of his stomach because they’ve literally nowhere to go – at that stage of their life.

“It’s unconscionable what is happening to families like that.”

Doherty said it was a result of the Government’s “rent hike bill” last summer which “opened the floodgates” for evictions.

“You made a deliberate political choice to side with institutional investors, to side with the vulture funds, to side with the landlords over ordinary Irish renters.”

He added: “Today’s figure exposed the reality of your housing policy: More evictions, more rent, more insecurity, more homelessness, and it’s not an accident.”

In response, Harris said it was important not to “cherry pick” one figure in isolation.

He said the report “actually shows that there was a 39 per cent decrease in the number of termination notices issued in the month of March compared to the month of February”.

He added: “The reality also shows that actually there’s a downward trend from February to March in terms of termination notices – that’s also in the report, but perhaps was overlooked.

“There’s also in the report clear signs of continued resilience in the Irish rental sector.: We see more tenancy and more landlords in the market.”

Harris acknowledged that there was a “significant housing challenge” and said the country was “still in the midst of a housing emergency”.

He said Government was continuing to ramp up supply of housing and pointed to recent rental reforms on tenancies of minimum duration as well as nationwide implementation of rent pressure zone rules.

Doherty dismissed the response as “spin” and added: “The truth is that you are deepening the crisis.”