Joe Behan - Independent Councillor - Wicklow County Council

Christmas Repossessions
December 2014

The bitter- sweet reality of life at Christmas 2014 for some residents of County Wicklow was sharply underlined in the Wicklow Circuit Court this week.

At individual hearings, some banks which have been bailed out by the taxpayer were seeking repossession orders in almost 90 cases.

The idea of financial institutions whose very existence owes everything to the sacrifices of the people of this country applying to throw Wicklow residents out of their homes in the week before Christmas is shocking.

A recent meeting of Wicklow County Council was told that 90 families consisting of 127 adults and 172 children presented homeless or at risk of homelessness in 2014 and this does not even include the figure for Bray which has experienced a dramatic surge in homelessness in the past year. The fact that hundreds of children and adults in County Wicklow will be homeless at Christmas is a local and national disgrace and is a cause of deep shame for all right thinking people in this country.

At this time of peace and goodwill to all people, is it too much to expect that our Government and financial institutions should show some humanity and refrain from pressurising people to leave their homes and go to live on the streets?

Surely it is possible for the Government to insist that no family is evicted from their home for the next 5 years while the economy gradually improves and with it the chances for families to improve their finances and get back to making the payments necessary to keep the banks at bay.

Any Government worthy of the name should surely, at this Christmas time, seek to protect families and children particularly from the scourge of eviction and the horror of homelessness.

If not, they should be evicted themselves from the cosy bubble environment they inhabit in Leinster House.

Joe Behan
Independent