The Tánaiste insists the lifting of the eviction ban is the right thing to do.
Micheál Martin was speaking in the city centre this afternoon at the opening of a new Focus Ireland housing scheme.
Earlier today Cork Simon Community told RedFM News that they have concerns about the lifting of the ban and warned that already stretched charities may not be able to cope with an increase in homelessness as more people are evicted.
A new report from the Department of Housing, released today, shows there were 528 adults in emergency accommodation in Cork at the end of February.
Speaking to RedFM News, Tánaiste Micheál Martin outlines why the government feels it's necessary to lift the ban:
"The advice was that if you kept the ban going, you would do more damage, and you would exacerbate the homeless situation in the fullness of time, because properties would leave the market, and there would be no new properties coming into the market. There was a rationale for this. And nobody has said to me, there should be an indefinite eviction ban. So if people accept that logic, then a ban has to be lifted at some stage. And the problems could even be worse if you were to prolong it, and that's what has been advised to government in respect of keeping properties in the market".
