Serious concerns have been raised over the number of people being evicted from homes, despite being up-to-date on their rent payments.

Landlords have been accused by Sinn Fein of selling properties to "banks or vulture funds" which is forcing people out of their homes.

Mr Dessie Ellis said he is supporting the anti-eviction private members bill (PMB) put forward by AAA and People Before Profit.

He said: "The Government's 'Tyrrelstown agreement' legislates for people with a large number of properties and rightly forces them to pass on those properties on their portfolios with tenants in place. Where is the Tyrrelstown agreement for property portfolios with a smaller number of properties? It's not there and smaller property portfolios can evict many tenants as they think they can get more money for vacant properties.

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"This PMB will address that issue and remove the sale of property as grounds for serving a notice to quit. This is an important point: it is our job as legislators to legislate and for many renters, this is a serious concern which the government cannot ignore any longer. While we support the majority of points in this PMB, there are elements of it which we have difficulty with but on balance this is a good Bill and we will support it."

(CD/LM)