This week’s vote of no confidence will be touch and go for Government, the Labour Party is insisting.

The party is bringing forward its motion of no confidence on Wednesday on the back of last week's decision to end the eviction ban.

The party is using its private members’ time to bring forward the motion and believes it has “no choice” but to do so, with the ban due to be lifted in a matter of days.

Vote

The Taoiseach has said he expects the no confidence vote to be defeated by a "significant margin" – but Labour TD Duncan Smith told Newstalk it will be a lot closer than Leo Varadkar thinks.

“I’m not sure where he’s getting that confidence from,” he said. “We believe there are independents who are still looking to make their minds up.

“We would be very surprised if they win by a significant margin because what we’re hearing on the streets, be it in Dublin or anywhere all over the country where the Labour Party has strong representatives, is that this Government doesn’t have the support of the people.

“I would be very surprised if the government wins by a significant margin.”

Eviction ban

Deputy Smith said the Government left his party with no choice but to table the motion.

“Given the scale of the housing crisis and the Government’s decision not to extend the eviction ban, we feel we have no choice,” he said.

“After months of offering solutions to the government, including numerous motions and a proposed housing bill that the Government has rejected - we have to now state on the record of the Dáil that we have no confidence in this Government.”

Notice to Quit

Meanwhile, the housing charity threshold is warning that more than half the eviction notices it sees are "invalid".

It is warning that thousands of people could become homeless unnecessarily when the ban is lifted because they don’t fully know their rights.

The charity is warning that non-nationals and people who are not digitally savvy are most at risk.

Threshold’s national freephone helpline is open Monday to Friday at 1800 454 454.