Last Wednesday (July 8) the Housing and Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026 was passed through the final stage in the Dáil by the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael coalition.
Pavee Point is deeply apprehensive of the exclusionary and discriminatory potential of this new legislation. The new amendments to the Housing Act 1988 further restrict eligibility for emergency accommodation, whereby habitual residency is now a requirement for accessing Section 10 funded emergency accommodation. We fear that such conditions are bound to have a disproportionate impact on Travellers, Roma, and other marginalised groups.
The new amendments come in the context of a legislative regime underpinned by long-term failure in the provision of Traveller accommodation and eviction processes. In 2016, the European Committee of Social Rights found that Irish law and practice breaches the human rights of Travellers, in that: many Traveller sites are in an inadequate condition, there is insufficient provision of accommodation for Travellers, Irish law provides inadequate safeguards for Travellers threatened with eviction, and evictions are carried out in practice without necessary safeguards.
The new legislation will only compound those failings identified by the European Committee of Social Rights. The Habitual Residence Condition has already caused documented discriminatory harm when applied to social protection eligibility. The extension of this requirement into housing law undermines the State’s international human rights obligations and now risks pushing many of the most vulnerable people in the state out of homeless services, and increases the risk of vulnerable Travellers and Roma being forced to sleep rough.
We share the same concerns voiced by Mike Allen of Focus Ireland, and IHREC, that many vulnerable people, including those fleeing domestic violence, are now unlikely to be able to provide the appropriate detailed paperwork to prove the condition of habitual residency. We too are deeply concerned that this new legislation makes no provision for the winter months or people who have children with them.