The woman whose family faces eviction on Friday of next week despite a viral interaction where local councillor, Gavin Pepper, intervened after the bailiffs called to the home, says that while she feels distraught and humiliated, it is the government who should be ashamed of the homelessness situation.
“I feel so embarrassed by all of this, but it’s the government who should be embarrassed doing nothing and watching Irish families being put out on the street even when we’ve paid rent because there is nowhere to go and it’s getting worse,” Geraldine Byrne told Gript today.
Ms Byrne has lived in rented accommodation in Finglas for the past 7 years with three of her children, and received a notice to quit as the landlord says they are selling the house. She says that her family has nowhere to go in the midst of a ever-worsening housing crisis and that she had always paid the rent on the home she has been ordered to leave.
The Dublin City Sheriff and bailiffs called to her home to enforce a court order and remove the family from the house, but those actions were stalled after Cllr Pepper attended the scene and asked for time to meet with Dublin City Council.
However, Ms Byrne said that the eviction will be enforced on April 10th, a week from tomorrow, and that she is left “begging and praying for a miracle” and feeling “sick to her stomach” in regard to her family and the safety of her children in particular.
She told Gript that she went to the DCC office for homeless placement services on Parkgate St, with Cllr Pepper on Monday, and that they had given her an address to view the emergency accommodation room they were able to offer her family.
“I haven’t been able to sleep since Monday since I saw where they want me to bring my family,” she said. “I can’t stop crying because I’m afraid for my kids, I feel they won’t be safe there.
“It’s one room with two bunk beds. There’s not even a couch. There’s a shared kitchen situation – and in the room there’s a fridge and a rail for our clothes not even a proper wardrobe,” she said. “What are we meant to do, they said it’s all they can offer us. It’s a desperate situation.”
She said that the house she was sent to had 16 bedrooms, with 14 in use, and that she had only observed one other Irish family there.
“I feel I can’t bring my family there. I have to feel they are safe, my youngest is 13, are we all meant to be together in that small room all the time?” she asked. “I rang Parkgate Street and said it didn’t suit and they said there was nothing else available. I said I need my family to feel safe. I never thought my family would be in this terrible situation.”
“I’m renting 23 years, I have my own furniture, we have all our possessions. We’d have no privacy at all in one room, how can a family live like that?” she said.
She said that it was “unbelievably hard” for renters given the current housing shortage. “It took me a year to find our current home and now we’re having to leave,” Ms Byrne said.
“I’m told to leave but where will we go? I’ve been at viewings with crowds of people lining up to see anything that’s available. I’d take anything, a little studio room, a one-bed apartment, anything.”
“Who would want to put their children through this? I’m on lists years and I feel that people are coming into the country and getting accommodation ahead of Irish families and that feels unfair,” she said.
“We had the reprieve of two weeks, and we’ve been packing stuff, bringing things to charity shop but I haven’t slept an hour straight, I’m worried sick believing I’m bringing my kids into a unsafe environment.”
“It’s so humiliating but it’s the government who should be ashamed,” she said. “I mean, I feel so embarrassed by all of this, but it’s the government who should be embarrassed doing nothing and watching Irish families being put out on the street even when we’ve paid rent because there is nowhere to go and it’s getting worse.”
“So many people are feeling this, even though they’ve done nothing to be ashamed of. We can’t stop the eviction and we can’t find another home because the government has failed us.”
She said that she frequently took her grand-daughter to stay to assist with childcare for her daughter and that this would now be impossible in a one-room situation. “There’s the knock on effect, I help the way families do, and that’s affected too,” she said.
“People are being very kind and asking what can we do, but realistically what can anyone do? There’s nothing to rent, we’d rent a one-bedroom apartment, we’d take anything really,” Ms Byrne said. ”
“I’m just dreading next Friday, I’m sick to my stomach thinking about it, I’m just praying for miracle for us,” she said. “We feel so let down by the government, it’s like they just don’t care about Irish families.”
Daft’s latest rental report showed that supply of homes to rent has hit a new low, with fewer than 1,800 homes available to rent nationwide as of 1 February.
That was down 22% compared to the same date in 2025 and is the lowest level of availability for this time of year since the Rental Report series began in 2006.
The property rental agency said the drop in availability is “particularly acute” in Dublin, where the number of homes to rent is down annually by over one third, leading to the average apartment rent in the city to climb to nearly €2,700.
Professor Ronan Lyons for Daft added, “Unsurprisingly, with extremely tight availability, rents in the open market continue to rise.
“The same is true for room rentals, which have also seen a sharp fall in availability in the last year.