Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will. I agree with most everything else but I want to mention to Mr. Taylor that I have been down this road and have examined the barracks and the conditions therein in the past. I have also looked at the alternatives and the conditions therein, or thereout as the case may be now. It is a sad reflection on our society that we have displaced people to move them, theoretically, to a better place but left them with no place to go. That is a sad, hard fact of life. We need to address the issue because it will not go away. There are seriously vulnerable people now sleeping on the streets within reach of where we are sitting and in every other city and town in this country.

It is not acceptable and we must deal with it. I know the institutions were not satisfactory before and I was part of the visiting committees. The places some of those people are now are not very satisfactory. They are an appalling reflection of what we are as a society, what we are doing and what we propose to do. We see "remedial alternatives" that do not turn out to be as good as they looked at the beginning. The other man's grass is always greener.