A permanent ban on evictions is not something that can be allowed, Sinn Féin's Housing Spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin has said.
He was speaking as coalition party leaders are meeting, ahead of a Cabinet decision on Tuesday, on whether or not to extend the winter eviction ban.
Most opposition parties are calling for the ban to be extended to avoid a fresh wave of homelessness.
Senator Barry Ward, Fine Gael's Seanad Spokesperson on Justice, and Deputy Ó Broin debated on The Hard Shoulder.
"I agree with Barry on one thing: you cannot have a permanent ban on evictions, of course you can't," Deputy Ó Broin said.
"In fact I tabled amendments to the current ban on evictions to create separate carveouts for property owners, who themselves are at-risk of homelessness, to allow them get their properties back.
"But at a point where official levels of homelessness are about to hit 12,00, and could go as far as 13,000+, for a short time-limited period we do need to extend the ban.
"We would not be here if Government had taken the advice we had given them last year".
'I don't think it's a good thing'
Deputy Ó Broin said the ban is a response to a situation created by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
"In four weeks' time, the current ban on evictions ends," he said.
"I don't think a ban on evictions is a good idea, I don't think it's a good thing.
"It is simply an emergency response to a crisis created by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
"We are going to have in April, May and June an increasing number of men and women [and] children with no homes to go to.
"Government is going to have to introduce an extension to what is a temporary ban on evictions".
'Demonised landlords'
Senator Ward said Sinn Féin has made it more difficult for smaller landlords.
"Sinn Féin has, in my mind, demonised landlords at every level," he said.
"They have made that word a bad word.
"We obviously have a visceral historical association with that word in Ireland.
"The reality is that, I suggest, that Sinn Féin has successfully demonised landlords.
"[This] has made it more attractive for them to leave the market.
"We hear it in the media, on this station and others, landlords are leaving the market because they are finding it increasingly difficult, less profitable and for many of them unsustainable.
"These are not institutional landlords we're talking about: they are ordinary people who might be [a landlord] by accident".
'They'll make the right decision'
Senator Ward said any ban extension could be challenged legally.
"The three party leaders are meeting to consider that, I hope and believe they'll make the right decision," he said.
"What I'm saying is not that there shouldn't be a continuation of the eviction ban... what I'm saying is we have to think carefully about it.
"There are two things that are worrying: the constitutional context where it might be illegal and unconstitutional and be challenged.
"The second is the law of unintended consequences, where we might create other problems that haven't been foreseen," he added.
