Evictions, the vulnerable in Dublin 4.

international | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis

Wednesday October 18, 2006 23:31

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics

There is a very saying. Come progress, come poverty.

During the last census in Ireland, it was spoken about in the Joe Duffy Liveline. It outlined the wealth and the illusion of the everlasting Tiger but people doing the census forms told Joe Duffy of the poverty they experienced in many houses on their rounds.

Two weeks ago I was walking with my dog on the Canal, off Baggot Street, when a lady in distress sitting on a park bench crying - i stopped spoke to her and listened intently to her story. The lady told me come October 10th at 10.00 p.m. the Sherriff was coming on behalf of the landlord with an order of ejection.

It intrigued me that the word 'EVICtion.....is not being used now. I took some particulars off the lady and made no promises. Two days later I met a barrister friend of mine. He asked me how long she lived in her flat. I said 27 years. He replied she has rights under the 1980 Act section 17.

I made some more enquiries. The lady has mental health problems and phobias e.g. she will not oper her post. She has no electricity for 5 years in the heartland of Georgian Dublin 4.

I ask tonight where are the governtment agencies to support this lady who is vulnerable in relation to mental health. Who protects the Vulnerable?

On a Wednesday evening I phoned 4 government agencies. in this I include Threshold, Social Services, Citizen Rights Bureau....The answers were all similar....it is too late we cannot help. But what intrigues me most is that nobody mentioned the 1980 Act.

I then phoned the solicitors on behalf of the Landlord - I spent a long time negotiating the cancellation of the Ejection Order which was to happen in 4 days. They lady now has a reprieve until the middle of January. The Ejection Order was cancelled.

Herself and her little dog have a roof over their head for Halloween and Christmas.

They got the Ejection order because this lady feared opening her post for two years.

Where is the new Disability Bill? I ask this question tonight to Enda Kenny, to Pat Rabitte, Joe Higgins, David Norris, and above all Bertie - of Course and also to Minister McDowell who represents this Constituence and is Minister for Justice Equality and Law Reform.

What really saddened me was the week before her ejection she was full of anxiety and stress. In tears she tried to access a Government Agency, on a Tuesday evening, but she was refused by the door porter because she simply did not have her PRSI number or id.

I am not a lawyer but could someone out there clarify this lady's rights in January. Many houses are being revamped in Dublin 4 - progress, greed and money but morally this lady has rights above all these things within the terms of the Constitution of Ireland.

Quotation

Ignoring history
This quotation to me personally goes back to our Famine, our emigration, our coffin ships, our civil wars and the conflict in the North of Ireland. Now we have wealth and the illusion it will never end......

'Those who do not remember the past, are codemned to repeat it'
George Santayana 1803-1852
Spanish Born Philosopher