Campaigner for the homeless Fr Peter McVerry has said that the rent freeze and ban on evictions introduced during the pandemic has led to a significant drop in the numbers of people becoming homeless, as he called for the measures to be kept in place for up to two years.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Sarah McInerney programme, Fr McVerry has said that he is "very cynical" about Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil's "ability or willingness" to construct 50,000 social houses as proposed in the programme for government. "I've seen promises come and go and mostly go to be honest," he said.
He said both parties’ "whole ideology has been not to build council houses and I don't think the Green Party are going to be able to change that ideology".