Today's figures from the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) show that almost 5000 eviction notices have been served from July to September 2022.

Since the eviction ban will be lifted at the end of March, all notices will start to fall on 1st April. In addition to the alarmingly high number, another 1600 further eviction notices were served in Q2 2022.

In response to the growing costs of housing and energy, along with the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the eviction ban was introduced. With the ban, landlords are prohibited from terminating their rental contracts with their tenants until the end of March. The greater goal of the ban was to prevent home losses, especially during the winter.

Despite numerous protests and politicians' and activists' efforts to keep the eviction ban in place, it will be lifted at the end of the month and phased out by June.

This is truly shocking & seriously worrying…

From July-Sept 2022 4741 eviction notices were served according the @RTBinfo

These are the notices that will start to fall due from April 1st when the eviction ban ends

Along with the 1600 eviction notices served in Q2 2022. pic.twitter.com/vWuavWvy10

— Eoin Ó Broin (@EOBroin) March 10, 2023

Focus Ireland, which provides services to homeless people and those at risk of becoming homeless, believes the government made a "mistake" by lifting the eviction ban. It also sees this as a failure to heed the warnings of homeless organisations on the front lines every day.

In response to the RTB‘s latest figures, Focus Ireland said that the shockingly high number of 4741 notices is the reason "why we needed the eviction ban," while noticing that "almost 40% of the NoTs in Q3 2022 were in Dublin, which already has most of the homelessness and no spare emergency capacity."

Dublin is followed by Cork, which issued 500 notices, and Galway, that issued 286 notices. With more 200, Kildare and Limerick also had a high number of eviction notices.

In an interview with RTÉ Morning Ireland, the Minister of Public Expenditure, Paschal Donohoe, said that with an extension of the ban, "the impact on the future supply of rental accommodation would have been even worse."

"I'm seriously aware of how many people could be and will be in those circumstances in the weeks and months ahead. But when we brought in the moratorium on evictions, we did say it was a short-term measure," he further said.

To keep landlords in the rental market, the government is considering a tax break of up to € 14,000 per year. The plans are being considered in light of the upcoming budget as they might cost taxpayers up to €794 million. Ireland continues to treat housing as a business with potential to cut a profit, rather than a human right.