Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will confine myself in the main to homelessness. I welcome a debate on housing policy although I wish we had a little more time to deal with it. There has been a major legacy left to this Government - I completely acknowledge that. The Minister of State has displayed an understanding of the issue. I do not doubt her sincerity but I doubt the sincerity of the Government to give the kind of backing this crisis needs. I would have preferred to see some other members of the Government in the House listening to the debate because this is the crisis dominating at constituency level.

The reason for the crisis is the shortage of housing in some locations. The caps are too low or they are below what is deemed to be the market rent. People are being priced out of their homes although the term used is "priced out of the market". They have been trying to pay top-ups and have run up arrears from inadequate income.

I rang auctioneers to find out why. The daft.ie website and other online sites have references such as "no rent assistance". Landlords will not take tenants receiving rent assistance. I rang up the auctioneers to find out why they will not take rent assistance and many of the auctioneers said there was too much red tape or that they could get far more without it or else they could get rent above the caps.

In Kildare, the rental accommodation scheme practically does not exist. I question the adequacy of the number of local authority staff dealing with housing. A high input is needed to make the rental accommodation scheme successful but this has not been facilitated. The only staff I have seen hired by Kildare County Council for housing are the security guards outside the building housing the section that deals with housing and homelessness. This year alone, Kildare County Council dealt with 80 families with children in respect of homelessness. This is not a problem exclusive to the cities.

It is happening elsewhere as well. I have had people attending my office who are physically sick. I have boxes of tissues on the desk because they cry their eyes out. I have seen people stressed out and have had to refer them to Pieta House with suicide issues. I have seen anxious children asking their parents where they are going to live. At a time when the Government is doing good work on protecting children, we are creating another vulnerable section in society given the uncertainty involved. Children can see the anxiety of parents who are out day and night looking for a roof over their heads. They are not specifying where they want a home, they will take anything to avoid ending up in a homeless shelter.

Meanwhile, people who were traditionally in homeless shelters during the good years when there was supposed to be plenty of money, are being displaced onto the street by others who were never homeless before. This is just the beginning of an absolute crisis with serious numbers involved. One can be sure, however, that the numbers will increase to a large degree due to the housing shortage.

Six local authorities account for half of the entire waiting list: three in Dublin, two in Cork and one in Kildare. That is where rents are highest. The matter must be put on a war footing because tinkering at the edges and thinking that the rental accommodation scheme will deliver a solution is cloud-cuckoo-land stuff. Landlords are not providing accommodation because the caps are too low.

I understand that banks are telling landlords, some of whom are accidental landlords, to get families out of houses because they will earn more by renting out individual rooms. I have seen that happening. The people worst hit by this crisis are families with children who constitute the new homeless. This is nothing less than an absolute crisis.

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