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A PEOPLE BEFORE Profit TD has said a rally against the eviction of tenants from Dublin’s Tathony House shows that “you can fight and you can resist”.
A rally is currently taking place outside Tathony House in Bow Bridge, Kilmainham, to coincide the date on which tenants had been ordered to move out by.
The landlord has decided to sell the property and evict 34 households in the process.
Some have moved out since have had to relocate to places like Meath and Dundalk as they were unable to find a home in Dublin.
The remaining residents were ordered to move out by today but have said they will remain in place until their case with the Residential Tenancies Board has concluded.
Speaking at a rally today outside Tathony House, PBP TD Bríd Smith said: “The lesson from today is that you can fight, you can resist, you don’t have to give in to the demands of the landlords when your eviction notice is issued, you can resist.”
Smith added that people in Ireland don’t have “proper tenants’ rights”.
She told the rally: “In the meantime, people like the tenants of Tathony House are being faced with absolute desperation and either two choices; one, resist, fight, and stay where you are or give in and go into homelessness.
“I think the first choice is far better, far healthier, far more positive, and most likely to give you results.
“There’s nothing like fighting back and getting organised, but it does mean getting organised and you see the sort of structures of that here today.”
Smith added that the “bigger fight is to get rid of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael”.
Madeleine Johansson, a People Before Profit councillor and Tathony tenant of 14 years, previously told The Journal there was “no indication” that the landlord wanted to sell before the notice was served in October.
Speaking at today’s rally, Johansson said the situation has been “very frustrating, difficult, and stressful”.
TATHONY HOUSE: WE WILL NOT BE PUT OUT ON THE STREETS
— People Before Profit (@pb4p) May 31, 2023
10 remaining households have been ordered to leave by June 2nd .
But they're refusing to go - as is their right!
📣 Rally to support them
⏰ 12pm
📍 outside Tathony House in Bow Bridge, Kilmainham
📅Friday pic.twitter.com/AqscRoAMVK
She added: “There’s a huge amount of people with eviction notices out there, which obviously puts a lot of pressure on the rental market, which means that there’s more or less nowhere for people to go, that is the reality.”
Johansson and her partner James O’Toole have spearheaded the tenants’ campaign.
Addressing today’s rally, O’Toole said he too is “tired and stressed” but added that he is “determined to stick with this”.
Fabiola Escalera, who is a native of Mexico, is also a tenant of Tathony House.
She told The Journal: “It is really stressful because you have a lot of things going, it’s not your country and you don’t have your family here, so you are worrying all the time if you’re going to stay here or not.
“You’re seeing the prices in other houses, you have to pay €700 by sharing a room with two or three other people, so it’s really, really stressful for me.”
She said she may return home should she not be allowed to stay in Tathony House and expressed concern about her ability to afford rent elsewhere.
-With additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper
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Not the owners fault if they have nowhere else to go. If they want you to leave, then leave. Simple as.
After the tenants have paid for the entire mortgage of the landlord, tenants get turfed out? We shouldn’t have a system where landlords can take our housing hostage. These are homes, people need them. And tenants sure as hell pay for them.
@Brian: …and go where onto the streets? FG members are heartless, that is the big lesson of the past decade +.
@9QRixo8H: Total rhubarb!! The tenants paid the landlord to rent his property and the landlord paid his mortgage. How would you expect it to work?? Maybe the landlord should just gift his or her tenants after they pass your magic number. Time to join the real world!!
@Brian: your wrong the tenants signed a defacto agreement the landlord signed same agreement. It was honoured by the renter until the landlord with no consideration for the renter wants to sell. Problem is he has no right to sell persons into homelessness where children are concerned.
In the family court a judge consideration by law is to secure a home for the child. The Irish government have ignored this given the thousands of children in homelessness.
It now up to the Minister of housing Darragh OBrien to buy this property as he said the council would to leave people in situ. Or was he just bluffing once again.
Laws exist landlords and tenants have rights, but in most European countries 30 year tenancies are normal.
Our problem is ff and fg ignored this
700 euro to share a room with 3 others?
My poor poor Ireland, what have they done to you…
@Denis Rathsallagh Brady: it’s like Strumpet City with the return to tenement living.
All of our political class should hang their heads in shame. Except they won’t. Because they don’t give a flying f about us.
Do they really have the right to fight? Is there a court order of eviction? If so you can fight but you are still breaking a court order which isn’t a right just more consequences for your actions. It sounds like a certain teacher’s view.
@Craic_a_tower: no court order yet. The case is still before the RTB.
What a joke of a place. People getting turfed out left right and centre. Over 50% of hotels take up by emergency accommodation ruining local economies and tourism. People living in tents. Soon to be living in floating portacabins. Fine country.
@Niall English: bad government policies and try to force the private sector to subsidise social housing. Private landlords are not there to be social housing. The balance of rights should not be changed because you don’t like the consequences. You change the consequences so as not to remove rights.
@Niall English: My God. Why are you being so ungrateful. They gave us an extra bank holiday ffs.
The dail only sits in session 3 days a week and they are also stymied by lengthy recesses 2 or 3 times a year.
If you think you can do better work on such a limited schedule, earning less than 110k per year + expenses then you get yourself elected.. Russian Bot.
@Craic_a_tower: nobody asked the private landlord to rent his house, looking at the rents charged I imagine the landlord not complaining.
@Liam Foy: actually the government did by giving tax incentives and begging for cash injection and rejuvenation. Lots of people took the risk on section 23 and if they lost the government and public don’t care. If they make money people don’t like it and complain.
When did a “house/apartment” and a “home” become so confusing in Ireland? If you signed a lease to rent a “house/apartment” for 1 year, what makes you think you can live there forever?
I lived in Toronto for 10 years and was evicted 3 times as the landlords wanted to sell. Its the norm throughout the rest of the world. Thats the deal you sign up for when you rent.
These sort of reactions and protests are making the situation worse. Given the choice between renting a house to a bunch of professionals, or a “home” to a family, more and more landlords will choose the professionals. Families have no chance of finding a place to rent, even if they just need a house temporarily.
I’m sure Bríd Smith and the gang will also rally outside the nursing homes when they’re turfing out the elderly to make way for asylum seekers. You know people before profit and all that…
@HMurphy: well isn’t it fortunate that so many of our elderly died in nursing homes during the pandemic making room for the poor exhausted Ukrainians. Do you know how many times you’d have to stop to charge your EV driving from Kiev to here? Poor craythurs.
Was it him at the weekend because now everyone on the Dail are under EU,and no 1,in power or opposition are standing up for the Irish people,and was it Saturday they were out marching to let everyone into the Country,where are they when there’s 100s of young migrants been put into places where the people are not racist or far right,they are just scared when there’s 100s of men with no jobs,but have everything free,what are they going to do,but do what they like,because they will be no consequences,and they can move too another place with a different name..the ones out on the street last Saturday are the communities getting money from the government every year for their communities,that’s the only reason they ate out
have your say