The eviction ban is lifted today, on April Fool’s Day, but the Dáil is already on an incredible two-week recess for Easter – which virtually nobody has noticed.
ho are the fools here? The politicians are playing the public, but it could be that their short-sightedness will come back to bite them in poll results and approval ratings. Has there ever been an adjournment so badly timed and out of sync with the public mood?
The house quietly went into recess on Thursday evening after cursory consideration of a bill to create a national register of personal property, to be kept and consulted by An Garda Síochána, so that people can be informed if stolen (and pre-registered property) is recovered.
A good idea, no doubt, but it was crushed by the Coalition, for the second time, because it had been introduced by Sinn Féin.
There were so few speakers in the Dáil that the axe came an hour and 20 minutes early.
Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny made the last contribution: “I accept that if the Government is not going to support the legislation, it is clearly not going to go anywhere.
“It is a Thursday evening, at the last sitting before the Easter recess with nobody else in the chamber, so I am not going to keep us here forever talking about it, but the intention with the bill was to find a mechanism to ensure people’s property is better protected and that, if it has been stolen, it can be traced to the rightful owner when found.”
But it was not to be. The Dáil adjourned at 6.40pm until 2pm on Tuesday, April 18.
Quite why a religious feast which is always held on a Sunday should interrupt the work of the Irish parliament for two weeks must be a real puzzle to many – especially when the politicians pulled a similar stunt at recently as St Patrick’s Day.
Admittedly, taking advantage of an extraordinary opportunity for Irish interests, they flew hither and thither around the world.
Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny. Photo: Kyran O’Brien
Delayed jet-leg from his trip to Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai and Beijing may help explain Eamon Ryan’s stumbling performance on Morning Ireland yesterday when it was admitted he was “not as clear as he could have been”.
He claimed there would be a safety net in place from this weekend for tenants whose landlords are selling – that they would be offered first refusal on buying their homes. But the “tenant in situ” scheme is not “up and running”, as Mr Ryan claims, because it needs legislation – and nobody will be legislating in Dáil Éireann for the next two-and-a-half weeks.
Clearly the Government could have prepared and rushed through that legislation before adjourning for Easter – and Mr Ryan’s empty assertions only underline that fact.
Similarly, it might have entered someone’s head to curtail the long recess so that the job could be done next week – when it is not yet Easter.
But no, the Government has temporarily vacated its house when others face being forcibly evicted from theirs. The disconnect is stark.
While some TDs traditionally jet off to foreign climes for a break at this time of year there will be the suspicion among some that this year, the two-and-a-half-week break is arranged for the enjoyment of grandstanding on the 25th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement and the related visit of US president Joe Biden.
Cold comfort for those looking to put down roots, rather than get back in touch with them.