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Naoise - CATU Admin
April 18, 2025

A chairde,

CATU Mountjoy-Dorset are kicking off a phone picket of Vestry this morning at 10:00.

Vestry is an Irish REIT with a large amount of capital coming from multinational backers, particularly Singaporean investors. They are one of the largest landlords in the state and control over a 1000 properties across the island. We are currently pursuing their largest single shareholder and director Richard Moyles who, along with his agency Be Lettings, is evicting 8 of our members across three wards (D1, D7w, D8).

Among the members facing eviction are a single male, three young women, and two single mothers and their children. Many of the notices served on tenants were illegal but were upheld at the RTB due to a misinterpretation of the slip rule. What we have, in effect, is state collaboration with a multinationally funded corporate landlord at the expense of our members. The phone and email picket today is on Richard Moyles’ wife Leeanne Moyles who is an employee of Be Lettings and therefore directly carrying out the eviction.

You can access the call and email script at the link below. Please take a couple of minutes to call, email (or both!) if you can.

The phone and email address you need are 087 131 6512 and [email protected] 

Join us on the 26th of April at 6pm in Connolly Books, Dublin 2, for Ireland Without Landlords: CATU in conversation with Nick Bano.

Could we solve the housing crisis without building more houses?

Author and housing barrister Nick Bano is coming to speak with CATU about his radical reinterpretation of the housing crisis and what it means in the Irish context.

Register to attend with the link below (limited tickets remain) - this is not to be missed! ✊

A rep from our Cork branch will be running an online Freedom of Information workshop online on Tuesday, April 29th at 19:00.

The workshop will cover an introduction to what FOI requests are (and what the differences are between making them in the north and the south), what you can get from them, and how we can use them as an organisation to obtain information to strengthen our campaigns. A resource pack will be distributed following the talk.

This talk was proposed and mandated at our previous Ard Fheis, and so attendance and participation is highly encouraged.

Yesterday, CATU Belfast held an Anti-Eviction Protest in west Belfast highlighting the case of one of our members, Marc. There was a huge response from his local community and from our members right across the city.

Marc is bearing the brunt of a succession eviction much like our other members who came out to support as well. We will not let the Housing Executive continue to add to the homeless waiting list as they seek eviction time and time again instead of abolishing their broken Succession policy and take seriously the need to keep people in their homes.

This fight is a long one, but every day that Marc and the other succession families remain in their homes is a victory against the broken housing system.

The Belfast branch have a packed calendar of events coming up in the weeks ahead - you can find all the details below:

The latest in our series of Regional Forums took place in Limerick over the weekend, with members from across the region getting together to discuss strategy, share knowledge, plan for the months ahead and enjoy a well-earned social.

The Cork branch are also running a New Members training tomorrow (Saturday) - you should have received details by email by now but if not, drop the branch a line on [email protected] 

Cromcastle Court residents in North Dublin unionised with CATU support and won major concessions from Dublin City Council after forcing the council to commit to their demands. Today Cllrs John Lyons, Jesselyn Henry, and Edel Moran forwarded a motion with our members’ main demands, and after weeks of campaigning and actions the council voted unanimously to support our members.

We will not accept any tenant living in unsafe or dangerous accommodation; when we come together we can win. We continue to build tenant power block by block, house by house. 💚

The New Member training for Dublin members, as well as the new Citywide branch’s first meeting, took place on Saturday with a really strong turnout for both.

The branch’s next scheduled meeting is on Saturday, May 3rd at 12:00 in the Unite offices on 55-56 Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1.

If you have any questions about the branch or would like to get involved, contact [email protected] 

CATU Galway ran a very successful public meeting featuring speakers from Tinteán, Threshold and University of Galway Students' Union.

This meeting was an essential part of CATU Galway's Homes, Not Holiday Lets Campaign to combat the impacts of short term lets on the housing crisis in Galway.

By opening up the floor to members of the public, our aim was to not only spread awareness, but provide a space for everyone to voice their experiences, and ask questions, about the nature of housing in Galway.

We are reporting illegal STLs in Galway, 96% of which do not have the required planning permission, as well as pressuring the government to impose a cap on STLs.

This type of activism has been successful in Barcelona (40% reduction of STLs and cap on STLs) and Edinburgh (80% reduction and a cap imposed).

Organising in this way works. By coming together to demand a cap on the number of homes used for tourist accommodation, we see a tried and tested path towards bringing homes back on the market and making rent more affordable.

If you’d like to get involved in the campaign, contact [email protected] 

In Solidarity,

Naoise Faogáin
National Administrator

Community Action Tenants Union - CATU Ireland